Nine in the Dark
by Foy the Snooze Button
Summary: There are two sides to a person; one people see and the one people don't. You need to know how to balance those two sides or else you will crumble. He did not need to be taught that, he lived his life knowing that the first promise he made was broken. Now a letter that had passed through the hands of death enrolled him in a school he surely didn't need. He needed honest answers.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello.**

**This is my very first crossover, a Naruto x Harry Potter crossover. This isn't the one I told you guys about in ****Child of Hate****, it's a different one. It has some dark themes here and there. It features a smart Naruto and, like most of my stories, he has a dark past and most likely an even darker future, depending on how I'm feeling.**

**I don't think I've forgotten to mention anything so.**

**Enjoy.**

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR NARUTO**

CHAPTER 1

Naruto was always marvelled by his uncle's tattoos.

They were intricately drawn, spread out on his back and his chest but leaving the sternum and between the shoulder blades bare of permanent black ink art. A dark brown phantom wielding two pale blue wind trench knives with burning red Swallows' spinning around his back to his arms and wrists carrying along heavy looking black chains. The complicated piece of permanent skin art looked both harmonious and chaotic at the same time.

He liked those tattoos very much, they represented all the things he wanted to say and all the things he was thinking almost all the time but could never find the words to express.

He would ask his uncle Asuma what the tattoos meant and the man would always smile, ruffle his hair playfully and tell him…

"_It _was_ for work."_

…Was…

Was…for work…

The little child never once prodded or poked his uncle for more than those few words, content to catching Asuma leave the shared bathroom and admiring the tattoos spread out on his back like art on a canvas.

One day Naruto asked Asuma, as they were watching a game show with the rest of the family, Aunt Akuma and Grandfather Hiruzen, if he could one day get Asuma's kind of tattoos. The exact same kind, albeit with a few, small changes here and there, and his uncle grew wide eyed.

Aunt Akuma, Asuma's older twin sister, covered her mouth in horror, then she glared at Asuma. Hiruzen only sighed in regret.

"_You can never…no…you _should_**never**__ get these tattoos, Naruto."_ The man whispered hotly, pointing a stern finger at his five year old nephew. _"Promise me you will never get these tattoos."_ He grabbed the boys shoulder and looked deep into his eyes, pleading. The red haired boy didn't know what else to do than to nod dumbly, his lips clamped shut and shaking like a leaf in a storm.

That night his uncle and aunt argued for the first time since they were teenagers.

That night, their wheelchair ridden grandfather rolled himself to Naruto's room, a large space in the attic that had been given to the child as soon as he turned four. The complicated, oddly powered machines helped pull the man up the long flight of stairs from the living room to the bedroom-attic and Hiruzen wheeled himself to the great window close to his sleeping grandson's bed. Naruto woke up with a start despite how silent the old man was. Sleep still swam in his eyes and his mind was too muddle to draw a line between real life and dreams, but something still hit the child deep in his soul before he returned back to sleep.

He could still remember the old man's words.

"_You're a very gifted boy, Naruto."_ The words would echo in his minds. The hollow smile the man gave him still sent chills down his spine, like the smile a man who already knew of his death. _"You're a very special boy."_

The smile of a dead man to his precious grandson.

Hiruzen stayed for a few more minutes, watching the red haired child snore soundly in his sleep

"_A very special boy."_

There was an explosion downstairs that threw Naruto off the bed and into his grandfather. The man pulled out his eight inch bicorn mane and cedar wood wand and pointed it at the trap door-bedroom door. He pushed the boy away and ordered for him to hide under his bed.

Yellow and red light flashed from the open trap door and pain screams resonated through the great Sarutobi house. Feet quickly stomped up the stairs and scampered up the ladder. Naruto's eyes enlarged as he saw his uncle Asuma carrying a one armed Akuma, panting like a race horse. He gently dropped her beside their father and dove back head first to attack the home invaders, hissing out vengeful curse after vengeful curse. Blindingly angry that the attackers had harmed his sister.

Naruto knew a few spells; some minor, beginner level spells, but the words that Asuma spat out, hateful hexes and curses he never knew existed…

Akuma died before Hiruzen could finish knotting up her bleeding arm. Her right kidney and her liver had been burst from a curse. She died choking on her own blood, her glassy eyes staring lifelessly at her cowering nephew.

Her gurgled apology tore at the child.

He clamped his hands over his mouth and tried to muffle out his mournful cries as tears streamed down his eyes unrelenting.

The loud noise under them tapered to a stop. A shadowy, black ball shot up into the room and rolled towards Hiruzen; the warlock effortlessly caught it before it could reach him but gasped as he saw what it was.

Asuma's eyeless head.

In his horror, the old man was too slow to see the killing curse.

The Yakuza took Naruto away and burnt the Sarutobi house down.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Kaguya told Naruto, after sifting through his memories with legilemency, that it was simply a coincidence that her gang had attacked the house of the former great warlock, Hiruzen Sarutobi, on the same night he unconsciously asked when he could join the Yakuza.

It was a lie.

It was strange how much Kaguya trusted Naruto; she said it was because Naruto reminded her of one of her sons, Hagoromo, just like another child that used to be with Kaguya reminded her of her other son, Hamura.

Sasuke died of food poisoning just a month before Kaguya's Yakuza could invade the Sarutobi residence. If he was still alive, he and Naruto would have been the same age.

Hagoromo and Hamura were executed after they had attempted to usurp Kaguya from her throne. That was a few years ago.

The thing was…the two brothers planned their usurpation all wrong…

Kaguya smiled serenely, looking up into the blank purple eyes of her adopted son. Around her broken form were several black and red cloaked bodies, among which were Obito, Madara, Zetsu, Toneri and Danzo. The pale eyed princess felt tears slither down the corner of her eyes, she blinked hard. _"For some reason…I always knew you would be the one to kill me."_

The ten year old boy remained silent. The woman's eight inch rosewood with veela core wand poked down hard on her forehead, Naruto grit his sharp teeth.

You're a very special boy…

"_The underworld is now yours…my precious, little boy…"_ she said in a raspy voice. She blinked out the proud tears once again and bubbled out. _"I'm so proud of you."_

Five years of living as a Yakuza, the youngest in history.

Life was violent.

Life was accursed.

Life was short.

That life was not for a child…

He stopped being a child after he saw the life leave his aunt Akuma's eyes.

You fail to learn and you die like a flea bitten dog, Leaders child or not he was not exempted from the initiation, the raids, the mass beatings or the killings.

"_You're my special little boy."_

"_**Avada Kedavra**__."_ The boy spat and blasted a shining, toxic green light straight into the woman's forehead. She died instantly.

He straightened up and turned around to the remaining Yakuza members that had stormed into the throne room of the Leader. His knuckles were bruised and his short sleeves showed the red and black tails that were speckled with blood that wasn't his own. Whispers rippled through their ranks as they saw that it was the Leader's son that had killed over twenty high ranking wizards and witches, most of which were littered around the boy as she stood over his dead mother.

The first person to fall onto his knees and swore his allegiance to the new leader of the Yakuza was the purple with black ring eyed sorcerer, Nagato. The members of the Akatsuki faction of the Yakuza followed suit without hesitation. Then the Konoha nine and team nine. The ROOT faction of the Yakuza dropped to their knees and vowed to serve their new leader.

Roughly a hundred and counting Yakuza members inside and outside the throne room bowed to Naruto and pledged their loyalty to him.

It was funny how, when the world was fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters since the moment Naruto was born, none of the blood shed reached magical Japan; rather, the Yakuza was the one causing havoc and wresting control from the leaders of magical Japan. Voldemort was killed when Naruto was six, a year into his life as a Yakuza. By that time, the magical gang had cemented their place as the undisputed leaders of Japan, not only magical Japan, with a notoriety that was feared all over the globe.

So much so that no Death Eater ever set out to fight them for control over Japan, even though the gangs main focus was on the magical realm of the country.

There were formal political organizations that led magical side of the country; a Minister of Magic, a board of wizards called The Five Kage, several departments in the Ministry of Magic, a great bank situated in Kumo, a solid justice system and plenty of employees that worked to maintain law and order in the country, deeper down into the inner workings of the magical side of the country the Yakuza pulled the strings…

…and Naruto was at the helm…

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_One year later_

"Lord Leader, I still don't understand why you wish to go to Britain." The head of the Akatsuki said in a deep voice to Naruto. They were in the well-lit office of the Yakuza boss; the blood red haired boy was sitting behind a desk with his elbows on the table and his fingers laced together, placed under his small nose as he looked at the eight remaining Akatsuki members, seeing as Obito and Zetsu were long since dead. The Akatsuki were wearing their signature black with red clouds cloak, standing in a row before the desk while Nagato stood forward a little, a way of showing his leadership over the others. The boy wore a well-fitted short sleeved, black suit shirt with black shorts that reached his knees, red suspenders held them up. He also had on blood red socks that went up to his mid-shin and red sneakers, the best Muggle designed shoes in the market. The window of his office had pictures of former bosses hung up on the walls and a massive window stood behind Naruto, showing the stormy rain that poured down in Konoha.

The clothes he wore showed the long sleeve of tattoos that wound down from his the darkness in his sleeves to his wrists. Two tails, one red and the other black, twisted around both of his arms and if he was to take off his shirt it would show two foxes curled up together in a foetal position with their five other tails, of which the two _Yin-Yang_ styled foxes shared, wound to the front of the boys torso, though never meeting and leaving the sternum to his navel free of markings. The foxes were painted red and black with a fierce snarl on their powerful maws. Between each intricate tail were licks of blue fire and red water, woven peacefully through his arms and torso. It had taken four months to complete the boy's gang tattoo, and that was only because Kaguya had ordered for him not to be given any pain killer during the process of getting the tattoo on. His adopted mother had said that each gang tattoo represented their respective member; her tattoo was that of a white winged angel with pale eyes and wielding a scythe made out of bones and blood. Kaguya had said that the foxes tied him to his mother's clan and the red water and blue fire tied him to his father's clan, all of which perfectly synced in his body.

The process hurt like hell.

He no doubt looked and acted like a true boss, but some of the Akatsuki, and the rest of the gang, found it hard to get passed his age. The thing that sobered them up was that the same eleven child that sat before them in the bosses seat had incapacitated several ministry workers, killed twenty eight high ranking wizards and the immediate former boss of the gang, a witch that was considered to be the Goddess of Magic.

No doubt Naruto was a fast learner; five years under Kaguya's direct tutelage and being taught at the side by the current Minister of Magic, Hyuuga Hiashi. A prodigy that was seen only once in a lifetime, but it still couldn't explain why a ten year old boy could storm into the Ministry of Magic with a training wand he got from Konoha, kill the guards and work his way towards Kaguya, who was meeting with Hiashi in his office. Training wands were underpowered for the reason that the children that used them wouldn't be harmed by uncontrollable or intentional magic, but Naruto had used it cast over eighteen killing curses, a Patronus, a silver shield, several banishing spells, numerous body lock hexes, a number of disarming spells and an array of other spells. Admittedly, he made use of his fists a few times, enough to make his knuckles bleed. When the core of his training wand had melted as he faced off against his adopted mother, he rushed to the goddess with blood in his eyes and disarmed her, with a lot of physical and mental effort, and killed the veela with her own veela core wand.

The only people that knew why he was so gifted was Kaguya and Hiashi, and the former was dead while the latter had been sworn to secrecy by the former. Naruto could give a few guesses on why he was as good as he was with magic but he didn't really care much about it. His gang respect his strength, that was enough.

"Boss, is it that you want us to open a base in Britain?" Konan drawled, her eyes dull and her face stoic.

"I received a letter this morning from Albus Dumbledore." Naruto said to the assembled wizards and witch, not really answering the dark mages question but at the same time answering it with a low twinkle in his large purple eyes. A few more Yakuza trickled into his office, bowing their heads to Naruto, which the leader accepted with a small nod back, and they walked to behind the Akatsuki. When all his high ranked gang members had all entered he looked to the person at the back, Omoi, and the dark skinned boy closed the door, clicking it shut. The boss cleared his throat and said again, for those that had just arrived. "The Headmaster of Hogwarts sent me a letter," he looked over them, gauging their reactions; the gang members silently shared looks with each other and looked back at their boss. "He formally requested I enrol in his school." Hidan bit down a terrible curse and Kisame spat at the ground in disgust. A corner of Naruto's lips quirked up and he looked at them curiously. "Yes, Kisame…Hidan…"

"The balls on that guy." Kisame muttered angrily. His face contorted into a vicious snarl and he growled. "They want _you_ to enrol in Hogwarts?"

"Don't they know who the fuck you are?" Hidan said, his fingers curled and shook. "Do you want us to kill him, boss?"

Naruto scoffed and waved for them to calm down. "I doubt he doesn't know who I am, Hidan, and no, let the man live." His purple eyes snapped to the girl standing behind Nagato, the head of the Rock wizards and witches of the Yakuza, Kurotsuchi, and he nodded for her to speak.

"Assuming you did not know magic-which is untrue-" she added when Kisame looked over his shoulder with blood red eyes. The rest of the Akatsuki did so as well, glaring hatefully at the girl for even saying such a thing, none more so than the heavily offended Shark wizard, undead necromancer, the rinnegan sorcerer and the paper enchantress. Kurotsuchi coughed and continued. "Does he think we don't have our own School of Magic?"

There were two magical schools in magical Japan; The Suna Academy for Magically Gifted Boys and Girls for children ranging from three years old, nursery classes, to eleven, junior classes, and The Konoha School for Aspiring Witches and Wizards, for children ranging from eleven to seventeen. Each one dated back so far in history that their origins were somewhat confused. They proudly stood at the same level as Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Drumstrung. The very same high ranking gang members in the room had all passed through at least one of the two magical schools.

"I'm sure a man of his age knows of our magic schools." Naruto replied, his cool, lazily half-lidded eyes calming the Akatsuki down. "He wrote that my grandfather, Hiruzen Sarutobi, an old friend of Dumbledore, applied to Hogwarts when I was just handed into his care. He wanted me to attend the school."

The gang members all knew that their leader had not gone to any formal learning institution to learn magic. All the knowledge the young man had accumulated was passed down to him, orally and in written, by his adopted mother and Hiashi Hyuuga. Although, a wizard in the country had to have a certificate to get a good government job, a few people did not pass through the education system and turned out fine, like Nara Shikaku, who was the Head Auror in the Ministry of Magic. The closest to Hiruzen's age right before he died coughed and looked at Naruto for permission to speak. The boss nodded and Homura, one of the late Sarutobi's former friends, said. "Knowing Hiruzen, there was a reason he wanted you to go to Hogwarts and not Konoha."

"I thought so too and I did a little digging in my grandfather's family history. His only relation, albeit a _very_ distant niece of his, is a woman named Minerva McGonagall. The woman is many years younger than he was and my grandfather regularly writes to her about me, but I am not sure if she is aware of my current position. I doubt my grandfather would want me to attend the school simply because his niece is there; he has a number of distant relations in Konoha. I wonder, but I also doubt, if it has anything to do with Harry Potter." Naruto assumed, slightly screwing his lips to the side in thought. The baby was currently a year old and his location was a heavily guarded secret, nothing that Naruto couldn't attain, of course. As far as he knew, he was not related to Harry whether it was through his paternal or maternal side of the family. "Regardless, I will be going to Hogwarts; I have already sent back my response." His eyes narrowed and he held up a hand when he saw his subordinates begin to disagree with his resolution. "My decision is final."

"Naruto, sir," Sai called from close to the back, raising his hand to get Naruto's attention. "Will you at least allow us to accompany you there, even if it is to serve as your guards?"

"I will decide on that later. For now, I will be going to the bank for my grandfathers will," six years had passed and the will was still intact in the Great Kumo Bank. Besides the small loads of cash stashed here and there around the country that belonged to the infamous gang, Naruto had been frequently called by the bank as soon as Kaguya died on the matter of his grandfathers will. He had been postponing the visit for a whole year. "And I will also be going to get my wand fitted."

Up until that point, the young red head had been using his adopted mother's rosewood with veela core wand, mostly because it did not reject him like it did whenever he used it before he initially when he picked it up from the ground and also that he was too busy with matters concerning his gang to get a new wand. Naruto was not completely comfortable with using the same wand that had killed his uncle and his grandfather, but it was all he had while he was swamped with gang business. Now that the situation had normalized somewhat, giving him some breathing room and time to rest.

"Kakuzu and Sasori, I want you to contact Gringotts and open a bank account for me."

"How much do you want us to put in there, boss?" Kakuzu asked and Naruto waved lazily.

"Whatever amount you think I may need while I'm there. And another mission for you is to find a suitable place for me to live, preferably a mansion with plenty of land; I don't care if its old and the land is dying, as long as magic can restore it. Konan will help with finding a good house. Let me know if you find one." The two accounting officers of the Yakuza boss bobbed their heads with Konan, the only female in the gang Naruto fully trusted to have his back, most especially because she looked out for him when days were dark. The purple haired woman placed a hand over her heart and bowed slightly in appreciation. "I will appoint a representative that will take over in my stead while I'm away." He stood up and the gang members bowed their heads. He flipped his hand and motioned for them to leave his office. He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out his mother's wand. He pointed it to a door to the left of him and said. _"Accio broomstick."_

A coal black broom with white and red tipped broomsticks shot out from the storage room and Naruto deftly caught it with his left hand. He looked over the first ever broom he bought as a Yakuza boss with a lopsided smile. The _Wind Kraken IX_ was a spectacular piece of magical technology created from Oto by Kabuto Yukushi, a magical technician and medic. Naruto had personally commissioned the grey haired man to create the broom and ordered for it to be the only one in existence, with Naruto's ninth edition of the Wind Kraken being the last in the Wind Kraken line.

Kabuto was smart enough to know what would happen if he attempted to make another Wind kraken.

The boss slung the broom onto his left shoulder and sauntered out of the door.

Five minutes later and he reached the roof door.

"_Impervius."_ The boss muttered, pointing his wand at the broom stick and at his clothes. The charm could only repel water and from inanimate objects but was not as effective when used on a living creature. He would have to dry his body when he reached his intended destination. He dropped his broomstick onto the ground and transfigured a pair of thick, flight goggles from the door knob of the door before him and snapped it on. Then he adjusted his suspenders and double checked to see if his clothes were truly water proof; he hated the feeling of wet clothing on his body.

Naruto kicked open the door and hopped onto his broomstick, shooting out of the building roof in a boom of sharp wind and into the evening sky towards Oto to get his wand fitted.

**Authors note**

**What do you think?**

**You could say I released this story to just meet up with the update day I set. I initially planned to update ****Child of Hate**** but I couldn't meet up and I had this story in my computer for like two months now, not the oldest but it's an idea that's been burning in my mind for a really long time.**

**Next update is going to be on Sunday and hopefully on that day I will post Chapter 20 of ****Child of Hate****.**

**The next chapter of **_**this**_** story will feature part one of how Naruto invaded the Japanese Ministry of Magic. I'll be mixing bits of 'Naruto' into this story, like some Aurors knowing hand-to-hand and such. Next chapter also has his wand fitting and his experience in the Hogwarts train.**

**Well that's about it :)**

**Leave your thoughts in a review, if you please. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all your reviews!**

**Shout out to Noah Rhodes, lord 7th, , Autismguy593, Jajur von Hohenzollern, machtgut and MIKE202303. Your all fantastic :)**

**Enjoy.**

CHAPTER 2

Naruto bent down closer to his broomstick and gripped it with tight hands, squinting slightly as rain bounced off his flight goggles. He tucked his knees closer, but not completely together, and ensured his feet were securely behind him, close to the fiery wind breathing sticks. He twisted his hands slightly and the stick screeched through the air in a heavy blast of wind, tearing through the heavy rain that pelted down from the sky. The screeching of his broomstick became low and barely noticeable as the boss twisted his hands again; quickly returning them back to their normal position.

The result was another massive explosion of wind from his one of a kind broomstick, closely breaking through the sound barrier and rocketing through the sky. The skin on his cheeks flapped and his red hair matted down with the rain, though his clothes remained perfectly dry, but his body was not the same.

He vaguely guessed that he would be in Oto in roughly ten minutes if he kept soaring at this break neck speed, and he would get to the Wand Makers Shop two minutes after he broke through the Oto detection barrier.

Enough time for him to fall back into a memory…

_It was eight in the evening._

_Small, pale hands patted down the pockets of his black shorts and retrieved a six inch yellow, plastic wand with an artificial unicorn core. The child slung his arms through his red suspenders and snapped them onto his shoulders, as he proceeded to walk towards the massive stone walled building that took up more than half of the Fire capital. He rolled both of his shoulders, stomping towards the ministry headquarters with his black sneakers and red socks going up to his mid-shin. He smoothed down his carefully pressed, black shirt and stopped about two yards away from the building._

_The Ministry of Magic headquarters was a grand building that was just about as old as the whole country, with several stone dragons carved and placed around the top and the windows, numbered over ten dozen, peppered the buildings ramparts. The walls were painted a dull grey and the colours warbled and warped, like it was all an illusion trying to hypnotize you, and that was how the magic worked around the ministry; anyone that did not have a good reason, or intention, to come near the building was immediately detected and warded off._

_There was a big loophole in this; the ministry generally assumed that only adults could bear negative intentions. That if a child bore negative intentions the enchantment would deem it unnecessary to warn the security system. Children were greatly underestimated in magical Japan, especially if you were a half-human._

_Naruto closed his eyes and slowly breathed in, holding the breathe inside his lungs for a few short seconds before he breathed out. He repeated it once more and opened his gleaming purple eyes; his crimson red hair spiked up and he bared his extremely sharp, serrated teeth. His small hands clenched the training wand strongly and he continued his ill-intentioned walk towards the building where his adopted mother was currently taking a personal visit to her distant cousin, Hiashi Hyuuga, at the top floor in his office._

_The two guards spotted the dark clothed boy walk towards them, easily catching the training wand in his hand and the look in his eyes._

_His hollow, shattered, purple eyes._

_Naruto raised his wand and pointed it at the guard to the right of the door, the man scoffed and lifted his wand to send a mild stunner to the child, just a small warning for him to go back to wherever he came from, but his eyes widened like dinner plates at the words that came out of Naruto's mouth._

"_Expelliarmus."_

_His wand ripped out of his hand with enough strength to crack it down the middle and it soared over Naruto's head. His partner was stunned for a moment but not long enough for him to shoot three stunners at Naruto, aiming for his chest. The boy faced the attacker and swiped his sword in a reverse zigzag, muttering._

"_Protego."_ _The stunning spells bounced off against the translucent silver shield conjured by the little boy. Naruto swiped the shield aside as soon as the third one hit, spun aside from the fourth and fifth stunners, and hissed. "Bombarda."_

_BOOOOM!_

_His target, the only guard wizard with his wand, exploded into bloody pieces, splashing blood into his partner's eyes and allowing the little killer to blast him to pieces as well. It was a good thing his intention wasn't to be silent. He had come to the ministry to kill his mother but not only that, to also remove those that would prove a problem to him if he did not take care of them immediately. Ministry workers were exempted from the carnage he was going to raise._

_His purple eyes looked at the blood that stained the doors, the wall and the ground on top of the stair case and he winced; _maybe_ he got a little bit carried away. He walked up the stairs, his black sneakers splashing through the small puddles of blood and lightly staining the sides, thankfully not staining his socks._

"_Ok, starting _now_ I won't kill ministry workers." Naruto whispered to himself resolutely. He pointed his plastic training wand to the great, wrought iron doors of the ministry and felt a small push back preventing him from magically opening it, like the enchantments around the building still considered him a non-threat, a simple half-human child, and was wavering in its place on whether or not to violently repulse him or not, but the soft barrier nudging Naruto back was strong enough to deflect a direct bombardment charm. The entire building was alit with alarms, security forces rushed down to stand behind the door in preparation for the deadly wizard that was laying siege to their government's headquarters._

_Roughly twenty Aurors gathered before the doors, brandishing their wands, while the twenty eight Yakuza in the building stayed close to the minister's office where their boss was currently in with the Minister of Magic. Five of which closely guarded the ministers doors with dark, narrowed eyes, facing where the commotion was coming from._

_There was a ground shaking roar on the other side of the door and the door shook as something smashed against it._

_**OOOOAAAARGGGHHHHHH**__!_

_BOOOOOM!_

_This went on for thirty more seconds before silence._

_Deathly silence…_

_Five Aurors prepared to walk forward and investigate, assuming it was a massive magical monster that was bashing its fists against the doors in a futile attempt at breaking in…until…_

_The ground around the door cracked and the doors exploded inwards towards the gathered Aurors. The Aurors that were in front deflected the massive door and jointly levitated it aside. They looked back to the door, expecting a hulking figure to be standing there, but all they saw was a small, childish figure that was hidden by the streetlights illuminating from the outside of the ministry building._

_Thin fog rolled in from behind the child and flowed in, covering the wide reception room of the building in white mist._

_The Aurors narrowed their eyes and sharpened their senses, lowering their centre of gravity to stay stable and mentally preparing themselves to make use of hand-to-hand when their wands failed to work._

_Naruto's purple iris contracted into small pin-like dots, searching through the fog he conjured up and finding dots of life here and there. He lowered his body and bolted in, a small blur of life that shot through the gradually thickening mist. He batted aside a stunner to his neck and leaped over another blazing red stunner, aiming his training wand at the attacker and whispering. "Ducklifors." Muddy brown light blinked from his wand and hit his target; the jinx transformed the Auror into a duck and Naruto ran past him, blasting a different spell at four Aurors. "Levicorpus." The Aurors shot into the air by their ankles and Naruto waved his wand in an anti-clockwise circle, forcing them to bash tier heads together and knock them out so they wouldn't counter his jinx. He skidded on his knees under a blast of sharp wind to his face and spun in a tight circle, hiding behind the massive moving statue of a burning flame at the centre of the reception area. He peeked around the edge of the statue and swiped his wand down a little, saying. "Locomotor Mortis." The last attacker's legs stuck together and Naruto finished his curse off by sliding the fallen man back, separating him from his wand and slamming him against the wall. Naruto cursed under his breathe and ducked back down as red hot jets of water broke a corner of the statue close to his head, hardly three inches before the unforgiving, blistering hot jet of red water could scalp him. He coughed as small rocks and dust hit his face, though he thankfully closed his eyes before they could enter. He rubbed his upper arm on his face to wipe off the dust. The child then crawled on his knees to the other side of the living statue and peeked around it, cursing again as corporal, misty grey wolves rounded to him and snapped at his face._

_Naruto rolled backwards with his plastic wand clenched between his shark-like teeth, flipped onto his feet and back flipped three times over at least eight full body-bind curses as well as the insistent grey wolves, numbered three in total._

_The boy finally stopped and rolled backwards underneath the open legs of a male Auror that made the mistake of not wearing his wizard cloak but rather a pair of stone washed jeans and a plain white shirt. Naruto bolted forward and cracked his head into the man's back, violently shoving him into the wolves and distracting the wild animal summons. Naruto released his wand back into his hand. "Anteoculatia." The hex made antlers break out of the fallen man's head and cage the wolves, doubling over as great weights that kept the man down. Naruto finished it off by shooting a single knock-out curse. Naruto grit his teeth as he moved his shoulder away from a scathing hot hex, he moved his body and pointed at the wizard. "Flipendo."_

_There was a loud thud as the combined force of an invisible metal bull and an unseen marble elephant slammed into the man and cracked him against at least four more of his comrades, driving their unconscious forms into the wall._

_The boy closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that all the Aurors were out cold; most of the other Aurors or security officers of the building were either out on a mission or at home, which gave Naruto fifteen minutes before they could arrive. Being the son of a Yakuza gave him the privileged of seeing the time schedule of the ministry workers._

_Now he had to worry about the Yakuza guards._

_A twisted smirk crawled onto Naruto's face._

The eleven year old half-human felt a shudder go through him as he broke through the detection barrier around the humble but still bustling suburban community of Oto. He slowed down as he neared the gates and finally came to a halt before the gatekeeper's box. The red head puffed out a thick, relieved breathe and smiled wanly at the man standing at the gatekeepers post. The guard raised an eyebrow at the tattooed child, shooting a glance at the sleeve tattoos on the kid's arms, furrowing his eyebrows as the red head snapped his flight goggles onto his forehead and leaned back on his broomstick.

"I'm here to see the wand maker."

The man silently swept his eyes over the child. He looked over his shoulder at his equally curious partner, then back to the broomstick riding boy, searching his mind on where he had heard of such violent yet graceful body art designs. "Where are you legal guardians?"

"All dead, but if they _were_ here, they would probably send their regards." Naruto's abnormally large purple iris' sparkled with childish innocence as he cheekily smiled, flashing his Kiri-patented teeth. Naruto then jutted his chin to the box and said in a low voice, a voice only the guard closest to him could hear. "Why don't you go back to your station? I'm sure you have a lot of work to do."

The man opened his mouth to speak but his words jammed in his throat as the child's massive iris shrank down to small pin-like dots and turned an evil shade of red, Naruto smirked a little and tilted his head to the side.

"You can ask your mayor who I am later," Naruto continued in a quiet voice, adjusting his behind on the broomstick so that he could sit up straight and look into the man's eyes. "But, as you can see, I'm soaking wet and I don't like being wet."

The fear of kami was in the man; he knew what danger was, he what danger looked like and the boy was danger _incarnate_…but despite this he shakily uttered. "What's your name?"

"Naruto."

The boy's pupils returned back to their normal, large size and he slowly flew through the gates, slow enough for the guards to see him and debate on whether or not to call him back. He shrugged and flew on, his hands tightly wrapped around his broomstick but not in a relaxed position.

Oto was not a tightly packed magical location; the roads were made out of colourful, cobbled stone and the sky was almost as colourful, distorting and changing with the increasing sound of the people going about their daily lives underneath it. There were several shops set up that mostly sold knickknacks and souvenirs for tourist that always visited Oto, the Suburb of Sound, but there were also shops that sold musical instruments and enchanted instruments that could play by themselves; the suburb might have been over two hundred years old but it tried to keep true to its sound based origin.

The child stopped before a humble, stone building that had a single wooden door and three glass windows. It looked to be half the size of a regular residential building and it was squeezed between two large, influential shops; a sweet shop and a toy emporium. Looking at it made Naruto feel like the two shops, the sweet and toy shops, did not like to be near each other but there was still a small gap to fill, so they decided to squeeze a house between them.

At the top of the shop floated the words Sannin Wand Maker, established in 1745. The words drifted together and changed to a different sentence The Country's Best (and only) Wand Makers!

The boss dropped off his broom stick and hefted the magical item onto his left shoulder, patting down his right pocket to make sure his mother's wand was still there, before he entered the wand store. The water on his clothes flowed down his body and pooled under his feet with each determined step, leaving behind a few puddles on the bright cobble stone street until no water left again; it was a simple charm on his clothes that drained water out as soon as he was out of the rain, nothing too special.

Bells tinkled above the red head and a shower of soft red and silver sparkles rained down on him. He ignored them and inquisitively looked around; the store was deceptively small and was possibly as large as a library on the inside, as expected of a wand store as old as the one he was in. There were rows and rows of shelves neatly stacked with different coloured boxes that looked eerily like shoe boxes. Naruto looked down to the floor and sniffed as he saw dark green carpet with a sleek, silver serpent drawn at the very centre where the shelves surrounded in a wide circle and a desk with scattered papers was located. The silver serpent was wrapped around a golden slug, both of their heads gently met serenely. Behind the desk was a door leading into the backroom. The boy looked to his right and grunted as he dropped his broomstick on the broomstick rack, leaning it against the wall.

"A customer!" a voice yelped from the desk and the scattered pile of multi-coloured scrolls scattered even more as a black head shot up, blearily looking at the person standing at the door. Her sleepy mind saw a child but she didn't recognize him. "But school admission isn't for four months."

"Calm down Shizune." A calm, silky smooth voice said as the backroom door opened. Reptilian eyes glowed with glee as it rested on Naruto. "I have to say, dear child…I've been expecting you for a whole year."

"I take it today is Lady Tsunade's day off." The girl said with a sigh.

"Yes," Orochimaru replied without looking away from the slightly guarded boy. "I think it's best if you find her before she sells the rights to our shop to another mob boss."

"Again…" Shizune whispered in disappointment, making Naruto smile a little; Tsunade was an unrepentant gambler. Even he knew of the time she had gambled away the wand makers shop. _He_ was the one she lost to. "I'll be right back."

As she ran past Naruto, Orochimaru said after her. "Take your time, Shizune." The door closed, leaving the ten year old child with the fifty something year old man. Orochimaru smirked sharply and placed his hands behind his back, leisurely walking towards the boy. "I'm honoured you came to my shop, young master."

"I came to get my wand fitted." Naruto replied, meeting the man's snake-like eyes with his large eyes, having to tilt his head back to do so.

"Then let us get to it." the Sannin said and clapped his hands together. "Your wand hand?"

"I'm ambidextrous." The child answered as he raised both of his hands up close to his (Naruto's) face and wiggled them.

The man raised an enthralled eyebrow and hissed. "Ah…I see…" his right hand swished over to the shelf to his immediate side and a gleaming silver ladder skidded into his hand from the opposite end of the shelf. "It's not every day I fit an ambidextrous boy." He hissed out a chuckle under his breathe, running his hand over the boxes and mentally commanding the ladder to slowly move to the left. "Tsunade would be _soooooo_ jealous."

Naruto followed the man with his eyes, his iris dilated to be as large and as reflective as that of a wide eyed, innocent child.

It was the image he liked to use.

There were metamorphmagus that could change the forms of their whole bodies or part of their bodies either at will or depending on their emotion. Naruto was not able to change his whole body, but he was able to change his eyes, whether it was the whole eyeball or just his iris. He could expand or shrink his iris to make his vision sharper at dire situations; like the battle at the ministry. Dilated pupils could also serve close to the same purpose as small pupils but they allowed in too much light and the images were not as sharp.

Making his pupils smaller also helped scare the fear of kami into anyone that made him angry.

"The last time an ambidextrous person got fitted with a wand in my and Tsunade's shop was about thirty five years ago." Orochimaru grunted as he threw boxes over his shoulder and wispy grey and green wind carried them down, dropping them gently onto a large wooden table that had been conjured out of nowhere in the space close to the receptionists desk. "The most excitable kid I have ever seen," the man cast a quick look to the silent, diligently listening mafia boss, then threw the eight box down and slid down the ladder in one fluid motion, making his robes flutter but not lift over his head. "He looks a lot like you really…except…" the man pursed his lips and furrowed his eyes, studying the eleven year old child. "He was blonde…poor and…much too interested in wand lore."

Naruto laughed and walked to the conjured desk as Orochimaru motioned for him to come closer. The Sannin stood opposite the boy. "Interested in wand lore? I thought you said he was a kid."

The man quirked up a corner of his lips, a sarcastic facial expression. "He wanted to know if it was possible to have up to nine cores in a wand."

This suddenly got Naruto's attention; the boy placed both of his hands on the desk and his iris quivered, expanding and shrinking in expectation. "…And…?"

The man raised an eyebrow and pushed a golden box with two red strips going diagonally down its side. Ignoring the question he said. "Try this." The child suppressed the irritated eyebrow twitch he felt travelling all the way up his body to his face. He removed the lid of the box and pulled out the wand. "Seven inch Worble wood with a Manitcore mane core." The snake Sannin motioned for him to make a clockwise circle and Naruto did so. A small spurt of black smoke blew out from the tip and washed onto the man's face. Orochimaru coughed and pushed another box to Naruto. The boy dropped the wand and removed the lid of his next choice, inside was a dark pink wand that sparkled. The boy was about touch it, but the wand curled away from his hand and _screamed_.

_AAAIIIIIYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!_

Naruto had to take a step back and hold up his hands before the wand finally calmed down. Orochimaru hummed and scratched his chin, idly watching as the wand pushed against the corner of its box, away from Naruto, trembling. "That was a seven inch Wave country Ashen tree with a Siren hair core." He seemed genuinely surprised the wand had reacted so terrifyingly. He nudged the box away and passed another to Naruto.

This time as the boy was about to touch the lid the entire box burst on fire.

"…Woops…" Naruto muttered, deadpan, looking up at the pensive man.

Orochimaru frowned and regarded the pile of ash on the table with disdain. "Curious…"

"Do all your wands usually do this?" the boss asked with a slight frown. He placed his hand on another box and it suddenly became soggy with water. The boy ground his teeth and threw off the lid, not caring anymore; he grabbed the wand and the poor magical item flopped bonelessly in his hand, giving him what young children and immature teenagers did when they did not want to cooperate with their parents, the toddler. If Naruto could glare any harder at the quivering, spiritless wand in his hand the wand might have actually died.

"Six inch Seesee wood with a sea dragon tail hair core." The man pointlessly pointed out instinctively. "People from Kiri usually flow well with this wand."

"I'm not from Kiri." The red head said with narrowed eyes, casting the floppy wand into the man's grip.

"You need to re-check your teeth and your magical core, dear child." the man said as he handed another box to Naruto. This time the wand allowed Naruto to pick it up, but as the child waved it over his head a column of green fire blasted out from the tip and darkened the pristine white ceiling of the wand maker store. The boss hastily dropped the wand but it kept on pouring out toxic green fire from its tip, sputtering and quivering like a fish out of water.

Naruto bared his teeth and spat, grating in a low voice as Orochimaru dove over the table and tackled the wand with a brown sack. "I _**never**_ gave you permission to check my magical core, snake."

The man wrestled with the rogue wand, containing the flames with the brown sack. He grunted as he rolled on the ground. "The sensors at the door allow us to check on a customer's-" he coughed and stashed the sack into his sleeve, summoning his wand from his other sleeve and dousing the burning flames. "It allows us to know which kind of wand fits our customers better." The man smoothed down his robe and crossed to the other side of the table again. "It isn't a breach on privacy because the ministry gave us express permission as long as we don't use the information against our customers."

The boy silently glared at him, his eyes quivering. Orochimaru clapped his hand and waved his hand over his shoulder.

"I didn't want to resort to testing this wand out but you're a special case."

A black box coated with shadows zipped out from a tile before the desk. The man squinted his eyes as he looked at it, waving his wand for it to drop before the boy.

"We have been known to never leave a customer unsatisfied; I even fitted the owner of that wand, and it took seven tries before she found it." the boy felt a frown twitch onto his face at them slight mention of his adopted mother as the man looked around the boy at the veela core wand jutting out from his back pocket. Naruto moved aside, blocking the man's view, and Orochimaru coughed. "The last time I had a hard time finding a perfect fit for a customer was with the last ambidextrous child; I was about to bring out this very wand," he pointed his eight inch hydra heart strings core with Snow python scale wand at the black pulsing box. "But he found his match before that." he gently prodded the box and it slowly slithered towards Naruto, who watched, enraptured. "Give it a try."

Naruto placed his hand on the lid and flicked it off with his pointer finger. His hand hovered over the box, the darkness throbbing from the box increased as he did so; the wand was coal black with a glowing red tip. He breathed in and his nose flared as he breathed out; he picked up the wand and there was a small thud. The shelves, the pictures, the walls, even the very air, seemed charged with energy as he did so. Orochimaru's cloak flared around him, gripping his wand tightly and using his magic to maintain order in his and Tsunade's shop. The red head felt heat travel up his arm and cover his body, before it was quickly doused by a watery sensation from the wand. He closed his eyes as he heard a low whimper, then an willing _yip_ echo through his mind.

He cracked open his eyes and looked at the thirteenth generation wand maker; the man lifted up his wand and waved it in a small, irregular circle, motioning for Naruto to do so as well. The boy did so and red and black sparkles blasted out from the tip of his wand, as they dropped around they burst on fire, harmlessly touching the wizards and extinguishing on the ground. The Sannin opened his mouth, then he closed it, shocked. He began explaining. "Nine inch god tree wood with a Kyuubi no Kitsune tail core…" his hands trembled, watching as the entertained boy kept on waving his wand, shooting out different coloured sparks that ended up on fire. "There is only three variations of this in existence, one of which I made and the other Tsunade crafted." The boy might not look like it, as he played with the wand by sweeping it around, testing out a few harmless spells, arranging the boxes into a neat stack on the table and mopping off the water from the ground, but he was very interested to hear what the man was about to say. "Uzushio Scribe tree and Kitsune core, made by my wife, and a god tree and Kiri Hummingbird heartstrings I made."

Naruto knew the story of the god tree and the Kitsune very well; the god tree only allowing those that were balanced with nature chakra to approach and collect its bark. The god tree shrivelled up and died when all nine tailed beasts left the earth. While the dead demon, Kyuubi no Kitsune, unknowingly dropped two strands of his tail hair during its fight with all eight of his siblings. The beast had banished all of his siblings back to the underworld before it was killed, people weren't sure who had killed it but most suspected it was Kaguya. The proof of its death was when the immortal Kitsune clan of Uzushio began dying off of old age.

"Only one with demon heritage can wield that wand." The man holstered his wand and said in a low voice. "Do you know…of your heritage, young master…?"

"Somewhat." The boy replied mysteriously as he stashed his wand at his back pocket, beside the veela core wand. The man raised a curious eyebrow at this; both wand cores were supposed to negatively react to each other, but shrugged it off, guessing that since Naruto was able to use the veela core and the Kitsune core at the same time then they should be in a sort of mutual agreement not to oppose each other. The boy's large eyes looked up at the Sannin and he reached into his right front pocket. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing." The man replied quickly. He smiled slightly. "I'm just glad that wand has finally found an owner." his eyes dimmed as he thought.

The boy looked at the man suspiciously, slipping his hand out of his pocket. "Alright. Thank you."

He walked to his broomstick and hefted it onto his shoulder. Something seemed to click in Orochimaru's eyes as he said, just as the boy opened the door to leave. "Oh and if you can give this store a five star review of Banshee Screech I'd really appreciate it."

"I'll do that." Naruto promised and waved over his shoulder.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_A few weeks later_

_Platform 9 ¾_

_King's Cross Station_

The boss leisurely walked behind three tall adults in a simple pair of grey sweatpants and a long sleeved grey shirt, carrying a red backpack on his back and black trainers on his feet. He closely followed the three adults as they created a path for him to walk through.

One of the adults, a man in a bowler hat with glowing green eyes and a dark green mask over his lower jaw, wearing a formal black suit and in a pair of black polished shoes, was dragging along a large rectangular suitcase in his right hand. The next adult, a purple haired woman in a sparkling black dress that went a bit under her knees with a red cloud clip on her right chest carried a side bag that was magically expanded to fit all of Naruto's required books. The third adult was a red head with dull brown eyes wearing a red sweater and black slacks; he carried a silver cage with a brown owl that had its head tucked into its wing, fast asleep despite the noise of families and children in the station.

Naruto's eyes looked around at the numerous people helping their children onto the train. He spotted a family tearfully bidding themselves goodbye, hugging and sobbing on the child, a bubble gum haired girl that wiggled uncomfortably in the arms of her pink haired mother. The girl tried not to roll her eyes as he father placed a firm hand on her shoulder, his chin was strong, like his jaw was clenched shut to stop him from crying too. The girl sighed and nodded mechanically to their advice, she furrowed her eyebrows when her eyes met the bright purple eyes of Naruto. The boy looked away from her as Sasori politely tapped his shoulder, Kakuzu was behind the man, guarding the suitcase now with the owl cage sitting on top and the side bag slung over his shoulder and Konan was standing with her hands laced together in front of her. Sasori snapped his fingers and Kakuzu cast a privacy bubble around them, standing several feet away from the train in the crowd of people.

"Sir," Naruto nodded for him to speak, his eyes idly looking around at the children and parents swarming around the gleaming red train. "Do you still remember the address to your new home?"

"Yes."

"And the name of your goblin account manager?"

"Yes. Shifty D. Shank." He still found it hard to believe that the goblin managing his money was named Shifty Shank, but apparently the old goblin was respected for being a top banker in Gringotts.

"If you need anything, no matter how frivolous, please, sir, let us know and we will get it for you immediately." Konan said with cold eyes, but the red head briefly looked at her and he nodded, catching sight of the worry buried deep down in her soul.

"Ok."

"But just in case, I took the privilege of packing money into your suitcase." Kakuzu grunted and the boy smiled fleetingly.

"Thank you." He pursed his lips and adjusted his backpack with a shrug. "I wrote to Dumbledore yesterday that Konan is my guardian. I still want you two to remain in the country unless I say otherwise."

"Of course, boss." Sasori said with a discreet dip of his head. He shuffled aside for Naruto to walk past him, taking hold of his suitcase from Kakuzu, collecting the side bag and slinging it on. The masked man cast a temporarily stick charm on the cage for it to stay fastened onto the suitcase.

"Stay alert." He said to the three loyal Akatsuki members. "If there is anything that needs my urgent attention then send a letter or come to the school in person, depending on the importance." His pupils contracted in warning as he glared at his three subordinates. "The last option of coming to the school in person is only for life or death situations, understood?"

"Yes, boss."

"Good. I'll see you three later." He nodded to them and puffed a breathe out as he fully beheld the red train that would transport all the students to Hogwarts. As the other children struggled to lug their bags, pets and books into the train, Naruto didn't have that much of a problem. Spell and wand work weren't the only things he focused on while Kaguya was still alive; he had also been made to exercise. The boy looked around sharply, noticing that only the extremely excited children that pelted towards the train didn't find it hard while those that were hesitant to leave their parents had to put in a lot of effort to drag their luggage. He huffed and panted as he pulled his things, gasping in effort as he dropped them onto the train, deciding to pretend he was having trouble.

The boy passed by several older students that were stomping around and trying to get the energetic first years into compartments. The boy silently pulled his things with him, peering into compartments and frowning at the fact that they were full. The train's passageways were emptying of students and he could hear the train wail in preparation to begin moving. The red head quickly shuffled down the corridor, he slid open the door one of the doors at the far back of the trains ten carriage and sighed in relief when he saw it was completely empty.

He entered and closed the door. Then he slipped his right hand into his pocket and retrieved his new wand, smiling at the warmth that pulsed and resonated from the wand and through his body. He swished his wand to his luggage and his suitcase levitated onto an open compartment above the seats to the right, the side bag and backpack joined in and Naruto smiled in at his accomplishment. He picked up the owl cage and set it onto the soft chair, plopping down beside it and looking out of the window; he spotted Konan and the rest standing close to the edge of the platform.

The woman lifted her left hand and waved, a small, real smile on her lips. Naruto beamed at them and waved back. The female Akatsuki member kept on waving until the train was out of sight. She looked to the men standing beside her, her face reverting back to its default, stoic expression. "Let's get back to work; the mansion still needs renovating."

"I also have an appointment with Madam Bones." Kakuzu supplied; there was still the matter of sorting out their source of income so as not to draw the attention of the authorities in the country. As far as they knew, only the fat minister knew who they were. Kakuzu was applying to be an Auror and Sasori was also going to apply but as a Curse Breaker, but only after he had finished adding security measures to his boss' bank vault as well as transferring more than half of the Sarutobi fortune into the Gringotts bank account.

The woman nodded and all three left the station to go about their functions.

Inside Naruto's compartment, the boy kept his wand on his lap and gently pried open the cage of his new owl. The light brown bird trilled softly, looking up at its owner. The owl was a present from the Sand Siblings; a male Sun Scorcher owl from Suna. The bird shivered happily as Naruto ran his right pointer finger down its head, hooting in encouragement and hopping closer to the finger. The boy removed his hand from inside the cage and looked out of the window at the lush fields rushing by the red train. He placed his elbow onto the window, and leaned onto his palm.

"To be honest, I don't know why I agreed to come here." He said. The owl peered at his master and cocked its head to the side curiously, listening to Naruto as the boy spoke to him. "Maybe it's because I still respect my grandfather or maybe it's my way of honouring him, my uncle and aunt."

The owl hooted and a tiny, shaky smile wiggled onto the pale boy's face. His eyes reflected back to him on the window and he tiredly placed his forehead onto the glass, closing his eyes.

"What do you think, Saru?"

Saru the brown owl shook his feathers and lowly screeched.

"You don't know huh, then I guess we'll just have to wait and see." He opened his eyes and turned around when he heard the door slid open. The girl with pink hair poked her head in and her eyes lit up when she saw that it was the curious red head that had met her eyes more than a few minutes ago.

"Hello!"

Naruto gave her a lopsided smile and replied. "Hi." He looked past her and his eyebrows went up when he saw a large suitcase, similar to his, standing behind her with a green satchel sitting on top.

She followed his eyes and her cheeks turned red. "The guys in the other compartment were being rude."

Naruto stood up and motioned for her to come in. "Its fine, there's plenty of room in here."

She nodded her thanks and dragged her things in with effort. The boy went over and helped her. The two lifted the suitcase over their heads and pushed it into a free luggage compartment over the seats on the left side. The girl straightened her mid-thigh length green dress, subtly lifting up her black and white striped leggings, which went into her black shoes. Her smile glowed as she shoved her right hand into Naruto's face for a hand shake. "My name is Nymphadora Tonks."

"Naruto." The boy carefully shook her hand, taking his seat back next to his owl. The girl gawked at the owl, who ruffled its beak through its wings.

"What kind of owl is that?"

"A Suna Sun Scorcher," Naruto replied as the girl hesitantly reached in. The boy urged her on with an eager nod. "He was a present from a friend of mine. His name is Saru."

The girl ran her fingers on the owls head and the bird looked from her to Naruto, then back to the girl. Tonks didn't seem to notice this as she kept on stroking the owl. Saru quietly trilled at the attention and the girl giggled. "He's awfully friendly."

"He just likes you."

"My parents said they won't get me an owl because I'm not going to properly look after it." she suddenly said in a quick splash of words. "I wanted to get a black cat."

"Why a black cat?"

Tonks stepped back and gently moved the cage aside, sitting down next to the boy. Naruto forced away the irritated frown at the girl's clearly unconscious action; the girl was used to being close to those she talked to. The small handful of friends she had as well as her parents were used to the bubbly girls almost clingy personality. "My dad used to have a cat named Sylvester when he was a first here and my mom got us a house cat when I was six but it ran away."

The red head uncomfortably tried to shuffle away from the girl, closer to the window but there wasn't enough space to do that. "I hear Kneazles are amazing starter pets, and they allow them in Hogwarts too."

"My mom said that too but I don't want one; I want a cat." The girl insisted, literally putting her foot down. Her eyes lit up again and she petted Naruto's left knee once and asked. "But enough about me; do you have an older brother or sister that used to go here?"

The boy had to summon as much self-control he could muster so that he wouldn't lash out in irritation at the nice girl. He could see it in her eyes; she was just trying to make a new friend, and seeing as he wasn't chasing her away she took it as a sign that he wanted to be her friend too. Her assumption wasn't wrong since Naruto also wanted to make a friend, but he mentally made a note to teach her about personal space; the red head winced as Tonks shuffled closer again, pressing the side of her right thigh tightly against his left. His annoyed wince made him flash his serrated teeth, much to the morbid awe of the pink haired girl. "My aunt Akuma used to go here."

"Really? What did she say about the sorting?"

Naruto shrugged and his eyes wondered. "She didn't say anything."

The girl looked deep into his eyes, even as he refused to look at her, and the young girl managed to detect sadness in the red head's eyes. She placed a small, gentle hand on the back of his left hand, making Naruto quickly bare his teeth, snapping them closed and breathing out to calm down. He ripped his hand out of hers and placed them on his other knee, trying to show the girl, as non-violently as possible, that he was not a fan of physical contact. She seemed to understand his 'subtle' message but the question in her mind wiped out his warning. "Were you born with your teeth like that?"

"Like what?" Naruto looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"All pointy and sharp." He silently nodded and the girl pursed her lips in thought. "My mom told me that the only people with your kind of teeth are of the House Namikaze in Kiri, Japan, but they're all…" she grimaced as she again walked into yet another topic of the boys dead relatives. She pouted and her eyebrows furrowed deeply as her mind rushed to find another topic to talk about with her potential friend, frantically scraping through everything she knew so that she wouldn't mess up her chance.

"My father was a Namikaze." Naruto abruptly said, looking at her from the corner of his eyes but this time he added a forgiving smile.

The girl found herself smiling back. She squeezed his hand, her hair slowly changing to a lighter shade of red than Naruto's. "Well I think they're really cool."

His eyes momentarily darkened with frustration; either the girl knew his aversion and chose to ignore it, thinking he wouldn't simply kill her and frame her death on another student, or she was simply that ditzy as to _not see how p__**ainfully uncomfortable he was!**_ He looked up at her hair, then down into her dark brown eyes. "You're a metamorphmagus."

She beamed proudly. "So?"

Naruto smirked at her sharply, exposing his shark-like teeth, and his iris quivered, expanding and contracting until it finally settled in between, changing from bright purple to dark brown. "I'm half-metamorphmagus (shape shifter) from my mother's side."

Kitsune, while being a race of foxes that could take any form they wanted, preferably human form, were direct descendants of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, gifted with the ability to shape shift. The girls grin widened unimaginably and both of her hands gripped Naruto's left hand, looking at him with matching brown eyes. "I didn't think it was possible for you to get any cooler."

The Suna owl shivered and settled back comfortably into its cage as the two eleven year old wizards conversed. Tonks took charge of their conversation, rattling on and on about what she thought Hogwarts would be like, throwing small questions to her new friend to get his input, whereas Naruto was content to simply listen.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The sorting of the new students went by alphabetically, so even for those that did not have any surname, or refused to bear surnames for personal reasons.

Naruto was the only student in Hogwarts that did not have a surname and as his name was called, hearing Tonks scream encouragements from the Hufflepuff table and George Weasley, a first year, banging his fist on the Gryffindor table with his housemates to get another red head into their house. The Ravenclaw's sized the boy up as he smoothly walked up to the stool, his black, unmarked cloak rustling with each step, and the Slytherin were hissing among themselves, trying to come up with why a distinguished looking first year had no last name.

The red head sniffed and steeled his eyes, shooting a look up at his grandfather's niece, then to the stool.

"You can do it, Naruto!" Tonks yell reached his ears.

The boy sat down and closed his eyes as the hat was dropped onto his head, covering his eyes.

"_I wonder, I wonder, I wonder…was it wise for Albus to allow you here?"_ the hat murmured in the half-human's head.

'_I'm here because my grandfather wanted me here.'_ Naruto bit back defensively.

The hat chuckled. _"Oh that's right, your grandfather. You don't need to be here but your confusing loyalty to his house with curiosity to know. If you wish to honour the House Sarutobi then why did you not take their name?"_ Naruto's lips were straight and his shoulders stiffened, his fingers tightly clasping the sides of the stool. _"You feel an obligation to the Sarutobi, rest their souls, but you're ashamed to take their name-"_

'_I'm not ashamed to take their name!"_

"_Because of your tattoos."_ The hat finished and Naruto felt his heart thud in his chest as the shame the hat knew resided in his chest began to overcome him. _"I find it honourable that you are more devoted to the Sarutobi than your parents; the Uzumaki and Namikaze, two tragic stories I hope will never be seen again, are highly family-oriented, a great trait for a Hufflepuff."_

'_Then put me in Hufflepuff.'_ Naruto asserted.

"_So you can be with your new friend? That's another thing, you met this girl only a few hours ago and you are already a reliable friend, just like she is part of your gang-family, a core trait for a Gryffindor."_ The hat mused on. _"You are already well-studied in most of the magical arts and you still bear the _'Kitsune Mark: Nature of Curiosity to Know'_, a highly regarded value for the Ravenclaw. You're a half-human from two pureblood houses, which makes you somewhat of a pureblood, much more than you are a half-blood. Above all that, your refusal to take either of your parents name stems from your belief that you are not worthy enough to bear them, almost like you doubt you are worthy to bear the great Sarutobi name, another pureblood clan you are affiliated with. Oh, and let's not forget the Otsutsuki house, yet another pureblood house, albeit veela house. That makes _four_ pureblood houses; if that isn't Slytherin then I don't know what is."_

'_Because I am connected to four pureblood houses is what makes me Slytherin?'_

"_No…"_ the hat said. _"Because you love all four houses in your strange, admittedly twisted way, and your dark, shady upbringing under your late adopted mother make you a _SLYTHERIN!_"_ the hat bellowed and the green and silver table roared.

Naruto got up and looked down at his cloak; a Slytherin badge popped onto his left chest and the dark green colours of the snake house rippled on. The boy walked to his table, where he got appreciative looks from his housemates. He sat down and looked up, searching for his first friend at the table closest to the Slytherin's. His now purple eyes found Tonks brown eyes and the girl shrugged a little, a disappointed look marred her face.

When it was time to feast Naruto wasted no time standing up and plodding over to the Hufflepuff table. He frowned when he saw the yellow house become cautious at his arrival; he sat down at the end of the table, a bit away from the other Hufflepuff. "_Psssssssst!_" he said in a low voice to his upset friend. He exhaled in frustration and hissed again. This time a third year Hufflepuff, a boy that had noticed how the pink haired first year was squealing encouragements to the now Slytherin boy, jabbed his elbow into Tonks side. When the girl rounded on him to yell into his face, he jabbed his thumb at Naruto and served himself a large spoonful of chicken soup.

The girls eyes enlarged and she gasped. "Naruto?"

The boy waved for her to come over to the end of the table, and Tonks almost stumbled backwards off her bench as she leaped over it. She slid close to her friend and greeted him with a happy smile, the boy flashed her a smile and looked up to the rest of the house, who raptly watched them. He looked back at her and whispered. "I thought we could have our first dinner in Hogwarts together."

Tonks bit her bottom lip to hold in a squeal, suppressing it all into a tight, quick hug. She reached forward on the table and served her new friend a plate of custard pie and pumpkin juice. The two ate their food, and Tonks chattered on about one thing or the other as Naruto listened.

The Slytherin ignored the glares that burned into the back of his head from Slytherin table.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_The Teachers table_

A pair of eyes watched attentively as Naruto ate with his friend, a hidden smirk on his face. He crinkled his nose as he saw genuine happiness show through the calm boys eyes as the girl rattled on about something concerning one of her cousins, he couldn't care to listen. He knew better; that child was a killer. He would sooner kill the girl as soon as he stopped being amused by her.

He nibbled his chicken, briefly looking down as Naruto's eyes snapped to him. The boy maintained his gaze on the staring teachers face, his eyes narrowed suspiciously, before his attention was brought back by Tonks. The man licked his lips discreetly and tipped a goblet into his mouth, sipping the contents politely and setting it down to watch the boy once again.

'_The woman is stubborn, refusing to tell me the location of the silver coin.'_ His hand unconsciously clenched on his goblet. _'I wonder how much more she can take.'_

A small voice whispered in his head and he closed his eyes, listening to the voice command him. He opened his eyes and looked around to make sure no one had noticed his lack of attention as Flitwick told a story. He smiled politely and nodded along with the others.

'_You will lead me to the coin, boy.'_

**Authors note**

**So what do you think?**

**Part two of the attack on the Ministry of Magic is in the next chapter, which will be updated, hopefully, on Thursday. But feedback on this chapter would still be very much appreciated :)**

**Naruto has a soft side but he has a brutal side too, as will be seen in the later chapters. I'm not a big Dumbledore fan (almost like I'm not a big Jiraiya fan) so he might not be portrayed in the best light, but I won't senselessly bash him. As we go deeper and deeper into the story, we'll get to see who Naruto really is and what he'll do when he's driven; for now he wants to find out why Hiruzen sent him to Hogwarts and the only person that can answer those questions is Dumbledore **_**and**_** McGonagall.**

**Leave your thoughts in a review, if you please. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you all for your wonderful reviews!**

**Shout out to xirons20, TheForgottenSuns75, MIKE202303, Darck Master and lord 7th. You guys are all simply amazing :)**

**I'm gonna be honest… I didn't think this many people would follow this story. I'm doing something new (on a personal level) by branching into the mystery genre. I appreciate every single one of you nonetheless :D**

**I'll be travelling back home for the end of semester vacation tomorrow, and I expect to be sitting on my arse for at least fourteen hours, if not more. That's why I'm updating now instead of in a few more hours; so I can get to sleep early and wake up, ready to face car sickness, friends farting and laughing at your pain, and yelling out any song that comes up.**

**It's gonna be a lot of fun.**

**Now back to the story.**

**There's a villain in the castle that's out to get the 'Silver Coin' but I haven't even gotten to what the coin is yet, have I?**

**Enjoy.**

CHAPTER 3

"First years will be staying here." A seventh year Slytherin said as she motioned to the corridor filled with doors. The names of boys were on the left while girls were on the right. On the doors was a short brown scroll with two names spelt out. "You will find a door that bears your names and your luggage would be inside it. Those will be the rooms you maintain until you enter your second year."

The first year snakes surged past the dull girl, peering at the scrolls. There was a small flicker of blue electricity as a first year was repelled back a step as he touched a door. The girl sighed and added.

"That's what happens when you try and enter a room that isn't yours. Do try not to let it happen again. That is the main rule, another is for boys and girls to stay out of the others room and finally, public nudity will not be tolerated. Follow these rules and your stay in Hogwarts will be exciting and eventful." The first years looked at each other blandly; the senior's voice conveyed as much enthusiasm as a sleeping walrus. The older girl turned around and walked up the small flight of stairs to the common room. "Classes start on Monday. Use the weekend to get used to life here." And she was gone.

Naruto waited for all the bustle for rooms to settle down and the first years crowding the corridors reduced before he proceeded to look for his room on the left side, seeing as this was where boys rooms were. He wasn't used to rubbing shoulders with people; he led a gang of people that held high respect and reverence of its leader and they made it a point to not physically touch their leader, most especially unintentionally. This was not so when the child was still under his mother's tutelage but it had changed as soon as he took over the gang. It wasn't a matter of pride; the boy was simply self-conscious about being touched.

His shoulders stiffened as a small group of excited girls ran past him. When it came to his first, and so far only, friend in Hogwarts he tried not to mind because the girl was used to friendly, intimate contact. He still had that lecture on personal space planned out but only when she pushed too close.

He found his door.

The red head read the other name on the paper, _Perry Bones_, and opened the door.

The dorm room showed the pride of the Slytherin house; there was a large green and silver banner at the back with the badge of the house fixed in the middle, not moving. The beds were at opposite sides of the room, dressed in deep green bed sheets with silver pillows sitting at the top. A desk for each side of the room and the suitcases were pushed under the bed.

The bed on the right side was occupied by a ginger haired boy with black eyes and a light dusting of freckles on his cheeks. He was currently curled up on his bed, fully dressed in his green and silver robes, fast asleep.

The half-human moved to his corner of the room and sat down on his bed, wincing at the pained creaks he heard from the bedsprings. He looked under his bed and pulled out his side bag, throwing it onto his desk and yanking out his backpack from under the bed as well, tossing it to the end of his bed and pushing it off so that it fell onto the ground next to the desk, remarkably not opening or tearing.

He then stood up and pulled out his Kitsune core wand, dropping it on his bed, next to his pillow, and pulling off his Slytherin cloak to show his grey shirt and sweatpants. He folded his cloak and tugged out his suitcase, dropping the cloak inside and retrieving a short sleeved Slytherin shirt that had formerly been blank but changed its form as soon as Naruto was sorted. He found a pair of black pants and quickly changed into his new clothes, stuffing his grey clothing into his suitcase and pushing it back under his bed with his right foot. He picked up his wand and shoved it into his left front pants pocket, casting a look at his knocked out dorm room partner, before he trudged to the door to explore the rest of Slytherin house, the rest of the castle could wait until the next day.

He raised his hand to open his door but paused when a strong knock sounded. He opened the door and standing outside were four seven years and a sixth year. All of whom towered over the red haired first year. The boy looked up at them and smirked faintly. "Evening."

They clearly looked like they were trying to intimidate him, with the way they hunched their shoulders to look taller, glared down at him and wore heavy frowns on their faces. The apparent leader of the group, the lone sixth year standing before the four seventh years, cleared his throat and said. "We didn't like that stunt you pulled during supper."

Naruto was genuinely confused, and his curiously tilted head showed it. "What stunt?"

The sixth year, a brown haired boy still wearing the house cloak, growled. "Don't act dumb, you know what I'm talking about."

Naruto shrugged. "I really don't."

The boy lifted up his right pointer finger and grounded. "A Slytherin sitting at the Hufflepuff table. Disgusting." He jabbed Naruto's chest and a twitchy smile flicked on this face. "And I don't want to ever see you do that again, understood?" a sly smile slithered onto the boy's face and he looked over his shoulders to his equally proud friends, pleased that they had scared a first year.

The red head slowly looked down to his chest at the place the older boy had poked, his smile becoming toothy and wild, his eyes tightened into a tiny dot, changing from purple to red. Then he looked back up, his lips softly smiling and his purple eyes dilated to look naïve and innocent. The Kitsune part of him, the one that was roaring for blood at being challenged, was what pushed Naruto to ask. "Or what?"

The sixth year's smile faltered. "Excuse me?"

First years were now looking out of their rooms and eavesdropping on their talk, muttering and whispering about the nameless boy that had sat with at the Hufflepuff table with his friend. Naruto's smile widened, darkening his face, and he took a cautious step forward, making the sixth year step back into his friends. "I asked…or…what…?"

The boy suddenly found his tongue, his nostrils flared as he hissed. "How _dare_ you-"

"What is going on here?" a nasally voice asked from behind the seven years. The older students spun around and their eyes widened when they saw their house head, Serverus Snape. The first years hurriedly closed their doors or ran up the stairs to the common room; those in their rooms pressed their ears to the door to listen in on what was going to happen next. The man looked down his sharp nose at the students. "Well?"

It was the leader of the small gang that spoke. "Naruto here was picking a fight with us."

"Four seven years and a sixth year standing in front of a first years dorm room with their wands drawn," he said, his sharp eyes catching the three of the seven years quickly stash away their wands into their cloaks. "It would be wise not to lie to me, Mr Nalisver."

"But sir-"

"Leave, before I start docking points." the man ordered, glaring the sixth year snake into submission. "Immediately." He watched the older students troop out and up the stairs, but not before shooting a dirty look at the unruffled red head. The man then looked to the boy. "I do not know if it is how you were brought up and I do not want to know, but you better control your temper."

The boy silently stared at the man, masterfully deflecting a mind probe. He then said. "If this is how students behave then I assure you I _will_ get used to it."

"Good." the man turned around and said. "And make sure you keep your nose clean."

The red head was mildly offended by that remark. He whispered sharply to the man. "Contrary to what you may or may not think, my nose has always been clean."

The man nodded curtly and walked up the stairs and out of the house common room to his office. The man shook his head in exasperation and rolled his neck; he didn't know if Dumbledore told all the teachers and staff in the school that he was a mafia boss but at least it would make them more cautious around him; it would make him stand out but it would also drive away people that thought he was easy prey.

The red head walked up the stairs to the Slytherin common room and sat down on a seat with a small coffee table before him and five other seats spread out around the table. There was another seat facing roaring fire behind the seat directly in front of him, several couches where older students lounged out and chattered. The boy looked to the table and say a few old newspapers scattered on it; he curiously looked at the only other person sitting on a chair around the table, a second year boy with silver hair and silver eyes, and saw that the boy was reading the days newspaper. A few other students had the other issues of that days newspaper, leaving only older copies. The red head shrugged and picked up the oldest copy on the table, relaxing deep into his chair.

'_Might as well start learning _something_.'_

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The next day, during breakfast, was when Naruto received his class schedule. He immediately went to his only friends table and showed her, comparing what he had to what she did.

First year Slytherin only had three classes with first year Hufflepuff, all of which were bunched up on Herbology on Wednesday in the morning, Transfiguration on Thursday in the evening and History on Friday in the morning. Tonks was till happy to hear that she would have at least three classes with her new friend.

She helped serve Naruto a bowl of pudding and nudged the bowl to him, handing him a spoon as she spoke. "I was thinking we should hang out by the lake and see if we can spot a sea monster, then after that we can check out the greenhouse; I overheard a fourth year say that a former teacher lost his hand when a Jupiter Death trap bit it off."

Naruto bobbed his head as he swallowed his pudding. "Sounds good."

The girl looked behind her and turned back to her distractedly eating friend, swallowing pudding with intent, and whispered. "Someone from your house is looking at us."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Ignore him."

The girl worriedly looked back to the person, flinching when the sixth year from the other night, Petrick Nalisver, narrowed his eyes at her and snarled. She shifted closer to Naruto and ducked her head to hide; Naruto gulped down another sweat spoonful and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Her brown eyes were frantically wide. "I don't want to get you in trouble."

"You won't." He assured her. He wanted to keep on slurping his pudding but when he felt a shaking Tonks push closer to him he closed his eyes and sighed. "He's just looking for trouble, don't worry about it." He picked up a small tray of toast and scrambled eggs and placed it in front of her, pouring her a steaming cup of lemon tea as well. "You should eat something."

Tonks looked at Naruto, her small right hand squeezing his left knee, and the red head smiled warmly at her and patted the back of her hand. it was a forced gesture on his part, one she, for the first time, easily caught onto, but one she still appreciated. Her lips twitched up and she nodded her thanks, digging in to her breakfast of tea and toast. There were hurried fluttering echoing in the hall and owls swept in, dropping letters and packages sent by parents to their wards. A long, wrapped package that was clearly a broomstick dropped down on a first year Hufflepuff's lap and the pink haired girl turned to her friend with a question. "Are you going to try out for Quiddich?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I'd rather stay on the ground than fly around at high speed, chasing and dodging balls simply to get points."

Tonks chuckled and jabbed his ribs. "Afraid of heights?"

The boy shot a sarcastic eye roll at her and returned to his delicious pudding. "It's better than falling on my face after _seeing_ a broom."

"You know, I regret telling you that."

The boy smiled scraped the last of his pudding, cleaned his lips with the corner of his robe and smiled sweetly at the girl. "And I will _never_ let you forget it."

It became a sort of tradition for them; Naruto would always come to the Hufflepuff table to eat and they would leave the hall together for their classes. Tonks never always went to the Slytherin table to eat during their first year. She knew it was that there were people in his house that hated how he associated with her, especially because of her half-blood status, and Naruto wanted her to stay away from them. The Hufflepuff table were still unsure of how to take the fact that a Slytherin constantly ate at their table but they chose to remain passive until Naruto became hostile.

So far, the older Slytherin only conveyed their disdain for the pair through hateful glares and small hexes thrown at the red head.

It was when Naruto had Charms with Ravenclaw and Tonks had Transfiguration with Gryffindor, four months into their first year, did the older snakes stop hiding their spite at the two first year's friendship.

Naruto was about to separate from his _still_ only friend, with him going straight down a hallway and Tonks having to go up several stairs for her class, until six seven years and the single sixth year, Petrick, surrounded them. Naruto instinctively pushed the girl behind him and his left hand reached to his back, grasping the underside of his backpack where his Kitsune core wand was holstered. The boy couldn't help the snarky remark that came out of his lips.

"This took longer than I thought." he was fairly sure that it was these group of senior students that were threatening other Slytherin, and other houses, from interacting with the two. Hell, Naruto barely saw his roommate and even if he did the boy was either rushing out of the room to go to the library or for class _or_ he was asleep, in his clothes; sometimes Naruto felt like the boy overworked himself. He shook his head to bring his mind back to the current situation. Tonks too was having trouble making friends from her house, and it pained Naruto that he couldn't do much about it; he couldn't simply force a person to be friends with her, she would know somehow. The boy's eyebrows rose up a fraction, using his right hand to keep the girl behind him. "I was expecting an ambush like this since December."

The pink haired girl peered over his shoulder and grasped the arm keeping her back with both of hers, gently pulling him back. "Naruto, please don't."

"I thought I told you to stay away from that Hufflepuff."

"And I thought Slytherin hated Gryffindor."

A seventh year girl with stark white hair and blood red eyes sniffed, her right hand in her left sleeve, grasping her wand. "We believe in purity and royalty. Your association with this Hufflepuff is tainting our house."

"I'm sure that's what you were taught to believe, as for me, I was raised differently."

The girl began shaking when the four of the seven years removed their wands, keeping them pointed down but in tight hands. She squeezed the red heads arm again and pulled him towards the stairs. "Naruto, don't-"

The first year Slytherin allowed her to drag him back, not letting his guard down for even a second. A white haired boy with red eyes, like the girl, laughed boisterously and said. "Oh that's right, you're a nameless bastard."

That deserves a _**Killing Curse**_.

Naruto's jaw tightened and he put up some resistance to Tonks as she took careful steps up the stairs, walking backwards and pulling her friend along.

The sixth year leader cackled and pointed at Naruto. "He doesn't know who his father or his mother is, that's undoubtedly why he doesn't have a surname."

"He's probably too dumb to even pick a surname." A different seventh year remarked with a sly smirk.

"Don't listen to them, Naruto-"

"A worthless bastard that was most likely thrown out of his house." Petrick chortled. "How did you even get sorted into Slytherin?"

This time Tonks had to slid around her friend and stand in front of him, her large, soft brown eyes pleading for him to not listen to them as she pushed him up the stairs with both of her hands, using all of her might to drive Naruto backwards up the stairs as he silently glared death at the seniors.

"That's right, hide behind your girlfriend, bastard. She's a half-blood but she's a lot purer than you'll ever be." Naruto's hand clenched around his dark wand at what Petrick said. "It's such a shame her pureblood mother married that filthy muggleborn; she would have made a much better Slytherin than you if she wasn't so inept." Naruto tried to fight down the snarl that crawled onto his pale face. "A bastard and a clumsy half-born, a suitable pair."

Naruto found his arm outstretched over Tonks left shoulder before she knew it. _"Flipendo duo."_

The jinx whizzed out of his wand and slammed into the sixth year's chest, bashing him into two of the seven years behind him and still having enough force to skid them roughly twenty yards back, their wands dropped in their surprise. The red head wasted no time shooting another spell.

"_Incarcerous."_ Golden ropes popped out of thin air and wrapped two more seven years and the first year blasted a disarming spell on only one seventh year, ending his stream of spells by jabbing his coal black wand at the last seventh year. _"Epoximise."_

The senior student's wand glued into her hand and when she tried shouting a jinx at Naruto she found out, after the resulting blast of thick black smoke from the tip of her wand, that it was fairly impossible to cast a spell with her wand magically glued to her hand. The white haired, red eyed female twin gaped at Naruto as he grabbed hold of his shocked silent fried by her shoulder with his right hand and waved his wand above his head. An ear piercing wail screeched from his wand and no doubt the teachers would be at their exact location in a minute, leaving her to take the fall seeing as she was the last one standing with a wand in her hand; no sane teacher would believe a first year could cast all those spells perfectly and in quick succession.

Truth was, when the senior told them it was the first year Naruto that had cast the spells some, Snape and McGonagall, instantly believed it, though hiding this admission of belief under a week long detention for all the Slytherin involved.

The red head grinned at her and tapped the red tip of his black wand on the top of Tonks head then on his forehead, the first years shimmered out of sight as the Disillusionment charm set over them, making them blend seamlessly into the stairs and wall.

Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout were the first at the location the alarm had wailed, the others followed closely behind.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

As the two friends ran away undetected, they didn't stop running until Naruto ushered the girl into the library, where he took off the disillusionment charm.

Tonks looked like she both angry and mystified at the same time. Her mouth opened but only low, incoherent words flooded out, following Naruto as he sat down in a huff on a chair. The red head patiently waited until she was finished admonishing him with barely decipherable words, flapping her arms wildly but still having the presence of mind to keep her voice down.

"I can't believe you! I begged you to stay cool but you didn't listen to me. They were baiting you to attack so they could attack back as self-defence, its common sense!" a few more arguments rushed out of her words and splashed onto Naruto's face, until the girl crumpled onto a chair and placed her hands onto her face, moaning sadly. "Now we're going to get in trouble and we're going to get kicked out and we'll have to beg people for money."

Naruto chose to interrupt before she began conjuring warped ideas of what would happen if they dropped out of school. "We won't get kicked out; they won't even believe we did anything."

The girl opened her fingers slightly and glared at her friend. "And why do you think so?"

"Those were advanced spells, only second years are supposed to know them." he realized he had just buried himself as soon as he finished speaking. The girl shot to her feet and flapped her hands over her head again.

"Second year spells? Then how the heck does a _first_ year know them?!"

"I'm an advanced reader, you know that." Naruto sharply replied; it wasn't a complete lie, and it seemed to placate the girl for that moment, seeing as she knew long ago that Naruto was smarter than he made himself to be.

"Advanced reader or not, it doesn't excuse you for not listening to me." she steadily sat back down into a chair across from the red head, shifting it close so that her knees were pressed against Naruto's. The mafia boss' eyebrows slowly lowered at her mood drop, he sat up and quietly paid attention to what she was going to say. "I know how bullies act; I've had my own fair share of bullies when I was younger. They like picking on people they think are beneath them but they won't as long as you lay low."

"Dora, they don't want us to be friends."

Her lips sealed shut and she tiredly shrugged, her eyes looked down.

"Do…" the mafia boss slowed down and his eyebrows furrowed, leaning his head to look past the girls hanging bangs and into her soft brown eyes. "Do you still want us to be friends, Dora?"

She peaked at him and lightly slapped his knee. "Of course I still want us to be friends. Forever."

Naruto smiled and nudged her knee with his. "Forever." He grabbed her hands with both of his and got up, helping her up as well. He picked up her bag and slung it over his shoulder, carrying his win his left hand. "We're probably already late for class. Might as well skip it and go to the lake."

The girl placed her fists on her hips and followed behind her friend as he started walking to the door. "You're not a good influence on me."

Naruto turned around and walked backwards, baring his sharp teeth in wide grin. "I try my best."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

That night, lay awake in his bed, trying to fully understand the promise he made to his first and only friend.

Forever.

'_I can't do forever.'_ He whispered, his mood declining as his eyes drooped. _'I'm a Yakuza…I can't say I'll live forever.'_ He turned onto his side and looked at the vague outline of his roommate; the poor boy had night terrors, it kept Perry Bones _and_ Naruto from having a good night's sleep. It always happened at 02:45AM in the morning and Naruto usually set an alarm to wake up at that time to tranquilize the boy back to sleep but his mind was too clouded with his promise.

Promise.

He broke the first promise he ever made and now he was going to break his second.

"_Promise me you won't get these tattoos."_ His uncle's last words to him echoed in his mind, polluting his brain with the guilt he had been suffering for six long, painful years. He avenged the House Sarutobi by ending the Otsutsuki lineage through killing Kaguya but that only wiped off a small smudge, leaving a massive hole in his soul, the part of him that constantly punished him for breaking the promise. _"Promise me you won't get these tattoos."_

'_I got the tattoos, uncle Asuma.'_ he curled up into a ball under his thick blanket and bit bottom lip when a traitorous whimper threatened to slip out. _'I am sorry.'_

He only made two promises in his life and had broken his first; his second was being broken right before his cracked, teary eyes.

'_I am so sorry, Dora."_

The most he could do was stay away from fights but what kind of a leader would he be if he didn't attend major battles. Better wizards would come, they always did.

…Like he did with Kaguya and her inner circle.

His tattoos were his shame.

They symbolized his complete, unquestioned control over all of the Yakuza and all of Japan. People from their home that simply saw the tattoos on his arms knew who he was; he couldn't even enchant it to be unseen because there were counter charms in the ink.

He could never get them off and he could not hide it behind an illusion, only by wearing a long sleeve.

If Tonks somehow found a way to see his tattoos, even if she might not know the significance or the symbolism, it would crush the boy.

Her parents had heard of the House Namikaze, they should also know the organization that house was affiliated with.

The Sarutobi's were killed because of a similar set of tattoos, Asuma's. The Namikaze, a house of people that _all_ had the gang tattoos, were wiped out by a raid of upstarts from the Ministry. The Uzumaki were killed by a person that had the tattoos, Kaguya.

The Otsutsuki were ended by a boy that had been forced to wear the body art.

They were his shame; they were proof of the death of his parents, the death of his family and the death of his innocence.

He wrapped his arms around his legs and pushed his forehead into his knees, allowing his body to punish him for breaking another promise.

He wanted so much to be a good friend to Dora, to live up to his promise of being her friend forever, but his life in the dark kept him back. At the very same time he couldn't bear the thought of leaving her alone; she made him happy, really, really happy, for the first time since he sat by the fireplace with his aunt Akuma listening to her read him a story.

If she saw his shame, if she saw his tattoos…

…even though she might not know the meaning…

He didn't know what he would do.

Perry Bones, his roommate, began thrashing about on his bed and Naruto looked over his knee, his purple eyes twinkling in the dark, listening to the boy scream and grunt as the night terrors fully took a hold of him. Naruto reached out under his pillow and retrieved his mother's veela core wand, still lying on his side he pointed it at the screaming boy and soft, white wind floated out from the tip.

"_Noctusempra."_ Always be in the dark, always sleep. A spell that would only lift at the crack of dawn.

On reaching the boy, the wind wrapped around Perry's head, the sounds of Uzushio's sirens sang gentle, soothing, songs and lulling him back to sleep.

The boy suddenly felt tired and his wand hand dropped, accidently letting go of his mother's wand as his hand hung off the edge of his bed. The veela core wand rolled under Naruto's bed and hummed out a different song to its master, pulsing with soothing, gentle white energy. There was a brief, almost imperceptible stutter in its song as the Kyuubi core wand rolled out from the darker recesses of under the boys bed like a tiger that had been hiding for hours, patiently waiting for its prey, buzzing lowly with red tinged energy covering it. The veela core, still singing, moved back once as the Kitsune core increased the dark influence under the bed and rolled closer.

There was a whimper from the veela core wand and the dominant Kyuubi core wand seemed to take this as an acknowledging defeat, rolling back a little to allow the dead mothers wand to sing her beloved son to sleep, all the while keeping a careful eye on it, guarding its master viciously.

The two sentient wands, extensions of their former owners, only wanted their master to find peace. Peace that always eluded him.

Naruto's eyelids felt heavy, vaguely feeling the one sided tussle for dominance beneath him, but too tired to think too deeply into it. He didn't fight to stay awake, allowing the Otsutsuki wand to lull him to sleep.

Where he dreamt of the second part of his one-man invasion of the Ministry of Magic…

_He slid to a stop at the top of the stairs and slinked behind a wall, behind it was a long, marble corridor with offices lining the sides, splitting into two other corridors and ending up with another flight of stairs going further up to the more important offices._

_Naruto swallowed and steeled his nerves, gripping the training wand his with both hands and holding it up to his chest, under his chin. He briefly looked over his shoulder, around the wall, peeking out a single eye, and hurried back before eyes could meet him._

_He counted fifteen._

_He didn't see the five main players he was meant to kill before Kaguya; he suspected they were with their boss in her office to serve as personal guards._

_He grit his teeth and clenched his wand tighter, pressing the tip under his chin slightly and saying. "I don't _have_ to kill you guys…but I _will_ if you stand in my way."_

_The Yakuza members waiting for his arrival immediately went on guard as they heard his voice, rushing into the two split off corridors in standard defensive positions. Five remained in place at the middle corridor, hiding behind two large, hazy silver shields._

_Fu Yamanaka gasped in surprise, his teal green eyes sharply staring at where the voice had come from. "Naruto? What the hell man?!"_

_Naruto's purple eyes slowly leaked red and they shrank into tiny dot, releasing his right hand from his training wand and using his left hand to point it down, his back was still pressed against the wall and his left leg was bent, ready to make a run for it into the corridor._

"_Last chance to drop you wands and leave this building." The red head barked, his eyes narrowed._

_It was Doton, uncle to the mayor of Spring City, that answered. "C'mon Naruto, you know we can't do that."_

"_I'm going to enjoy this." The boy mumbled. Naruto twirled his wand in his hand and stepped out from behind the wall, his eyes lowered to the ground and a small, childish frown on his face. His eyes snapped to the left, glaring straight at them with demonic red eyes, and he twirled his training wand once more again. Those that knew him knew that he already had at least seven spells to cast that would kill nine of them._

_The curses started flying, knowing better than allow the boy any chance to move._

_The boy bent his torso to the ground in a crouch, his wand clenched between his teeth, and he bolted to them in a gust of soft wind. He spun aside from a whirring green curse, leaped to his right from a sizzling red hex and ran up the wall in three steps; he flipped forward with a backflip and soared over the heads of the five standing in the centre of the corridor. He huffed as he landed behind them, his palms landing on the ground as his feet skidded back on the smooth marble floor and his eyes red eyes pulsed dangerously, thin veins bulging from the corners, and he clapped his hand, flashing through three hands seals, grunting through his teeth._

"_Blister Twister."_

_The astounded Yakuza members, surprised that the child had dodged over thirty curses and hexes and somehow found a way behind their defence, ground their teeth as Naruto got to his feet and pointed to his sides, into the two split-off corridors, with his pointer and middle finger in hand guns. Blistering hot wind blew from the tips of his fingers and for those that were not quick enough to erect solid iron shields were scorched, their skin turning an ugly shade of pink and their hearts exploded in their chests._

_Four died, one was fatally injured._

"_Reducto!" one of the Yakuza in the centre of the corridor yelled, blasting the spell at the boy. Naruto cancelled his wandless spell-jutsu and spat out his wand into his right hand, swiping it upwards and raising a silver shield. The spell harmlessly bounced off and Naruto jabbed the shield, sending it to the five and rolling back from two curses shooting at him from both sides. The shield was disabled but the person that did it was immediately wrapped up in silver chains and dragged towards the red head. Naruto levitated him up and used the man as a club to swat away hexes fired at him, which inevitably killed him. Then he transfigured his dead body into an arrow and blasted it at a random direction; the transfigured arrow bounced off the ground, pinged off the wall, clinked against the other wall, before it buried itself into the neck of a witch, who gasped in horror and thus fumbled her next spell._

_BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!_

"_Aqua Erecto." A jet of clear water blasted from the tip of his wand and cut through the chest of a dazed wizard. The boy continued as he stopped the charm. "Ventus." Wind spiralled out from his wand and slammed against a wizard, propelling him into straight into the ground and cracking the back of his head open. Naruto dropped onto his knee as a jinx whizzed over his head, spinning on his knee to his side and pointing his wand at the caster. "Aqua Erecto. Ebublio."_

_Fu Yamanaka felt air well up in his body and he began to swell, bigger and bigger, before he exploded into hundreds of bubbles._

_The boy winced as he was sprayed with bright green eyes; he swiped his wand at the direction of the wizard and coughed._

"_Confringo."_

_THOOOOOOOOOM!_

_Fire exploded beside Torune Aburame and it took out his whole left leg and burnt half of his body but his distraction was worth it. Blood sprayed out of Naruto's mouth as a witch bolted to his side and slugged him across the face with a destructive fist. The boy careened from the blow and slid across the ground, righting himself in time to avoid a conjured metal bludgeon from cracking against his legs. The red head lifted his right shin to block a kick to his side but his feet still shifted back on the marble floor. Two more wizards joined the fighting witch and Naruto cursed, hopping over a sweep and catching a fist to his chest, wrapped his leg around the appendage and jolted his head forward, propelling the fist to crack against the wall. He released the arm and moved his head aside when a roundhouse kick swept to his face, kicking out the feet of the screaming wizard and ramming his knee into his stomach; the man lurched forward after the brutal attack and his face met the foot of the next roundhouse kick with enough strength to bounce his brain in his head and fracture the attackers toes. The last person gave a battle cry and bolted to Naruto, his wand, and the wand of the other wizards left, were broken from the fire explosion Naruto had last used, leaving them with only hand-to-hand._

_As he neared Naruto, the boy already had his wand in his hand._

"_Avada Kedavra."_

_The man's eyes dimmed with death as the curse hit him in the chest and the speed he was travelling in only made him crash his body against the wall behind Naruto as the boy stepped aside, watching as the man flopped onto the ground lifelessly._

_Green light flashed four more times as the fleeing wizards realized that they stood no chance against the child, even if he was using a training wand._

_Naruto spat out blood onto the ground and he wiped the corner of his lips with his wrist. He fought to control his breathing as he began walking to the end of the hallway to the stairs, leaving behind the fifteen bodies littered in the corridor._

_The veins at the corner of his eyes throbbed once as his eyes remained in their red dot form._

Naruto's eyes snapped after his veela core wand rattled once under his pillow. He grumbled sleepily and reached under, tapping the wand with his finger to silence the vibrating alarm. He sat up on his bed and yawned widely, throwing his hands over his mouth to stifle the sound and closing his eyes as he stretched his arms over his head. He rubbed his hands down his face and shook his head twice to get the sleep out.

He mumbled tiredly and got off the deceptively soft bed, casting an eye across the room and catching the eye of his ginger haired roommate. The boy smiled slightly at him as he rubbed water out of his hair with a white tower, Naruto nodded back a silent greeting and turned around to give the boy his privacy, while he pulled out his trunk from under his bed and threw it open, tossing a freshly laundered robe onto his bed, a long sleeved white dress shirt, formal black pants and a green and silver tie, it was only on weekends that they were 'allowed' to wear less formal clothing under their robes. He rummaged under his bed again and retrieved a pair of polished black shoes. He carefully set his clothes on his bed and placed his side bag next to them, before he brought out a white towel from his trunk, a bar of soap and a yellow sponge. He used his foot to shove his trunk back under the bed, smacking his lips as the last vestiges of sleep left him. The red head looked down to his 'pyjamas', a simple short sleeved red shirt with a black long sleeved underneath and black boxer shorts with black socks on his feet. He didn't really have any pyjamas; rather he had clothes he wore to bed.

He kicked off his socks and tossed them to the end of his bed where he would find them later to take to the laundry.

Instead of walking to the door leading out of his room he moved to the wall opposite the door where the Slytherin banner was hung on the wall, but stopped when he heard the bed springs of Perry's bed depress as the boy sat down on it with a huff.

"…Will you take long?" Perry asked. Naruto turned to him slightly and the boy tilted his chin up, a proud look he had learnt from his aunt Amelia Bones. The boys nearly always left for the day together, but Perry had said that he only did this so he could mooch off Naruto's 'smarts' as much as possible before his friend, Tonks, took him away. The red head didn't mind much, especially since he knew that the boy spent most of his time in the library, or sleeping or eating. Making friends and hanging out was not in Perry's itinerary.

"Five minutes." Was Naruto's answer and he walked through the unseen passageway behind the Slytherin banner that led into the passageway going to the First year boys shower room.

Meanwhile, under Naruto's pillow, the veela core wand warily stared at the Kitsune core wand, the latter keeping an eye on her like it had been doing for the past four months since Naruto had gotten it.

_I only want master to be happy._

No matter how many times the veela whispered her oath; her promise to her master, the Kitsune wand still didn't believe her.

_**Yeah right. You only want to steal the Silver Coin when master finds it. I'm watchin' you, veela.**_

It was times like this that the veela core hated being made from a strand of Kaguya's hair.

**Authors note**

**Is Kaguya really still alive?**

**Is Kyuubi really dead?**

**What do you think?**

**I'm incorporating little bits of things from the Narutoverse, like hand signs and jutsu (albeit it's regarded as a kind of magic) and hand-to-hand fights. It makes spell battles more interesting **_**and**_** fun to write, doesn't it?**

**Next chapter has Part three of Naruto's attack of the Japanese ministry. We get to see Madara, Obito, Danzo, Zetsu and Toneri go up against Naruto. We might even get to see Kaguya fight it out. Who's up to readin' that?!**

**Leave your thoughts in a review, if you please. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello! Thank you all for your invigorating reviews!**

**Shout out to EPIC-FEIRYWOLF, Janjur von Hohenzollernm TheForgottenSuns75 (thank you so much! =D ), Noah Rhodes, Darck Master, lord 7th (newp, not a typo), avidnarutofan and xirons20 (I hoped so). You guys are brilliant :)**

**Whether its Tonks or Dora or Nymphadora, they're all referring to the same person, **_**unless**_** I bring in the rest of the Tonks family. Dora is an affectionate name Naruto calls her, and seeing as Nymphadora is sort of a mouthful to say in some situations he cut it short. Others call her Tonks (cuz she wont allow them to call her anything else).**

**For those that have noticed but don't want to comment…yes, I **_**am**_** still trying to find what I'm good at writing in the harry Potter universe. Its not that I'm uncomfortable writing about wizards and magic and whatnot, I'm only really just exploring what I haven't done before (in this case, mystery and friendship/romance) and seeing if they're both a lost cause and I should stick with what I good at (action, gore/thriller, swearing, adventure and a dash of family). I'll gather more info after this chapter.**

**I won't be putting the third part of the fight in this chapter, I intended to but I was too tired. A few hours ago I got off a flight (back home from school) and I knocked myself out as soon as I got into bed. I overslept and thus is my excuse for not writing the third part of the Naruto's invasion of the Japanese ministry.**

**I wrote this chapter in snippets (I hope that's the right word), to power through Naruto's first year in Hogwarts. It'll give us a bit more insight on his background and what he does and doesn't give a flying **_**duck**_** about.**

**Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 4

_The First Yule for two First Years_

Tonks peaked outside the large front doors of the castle and shivered, rubbing her gloved hands together. Her soft brown eyes stared enviously at the older students that steadily made their way to Hogsmeade. She yelped when a firm hand clamped onto her shoulder, spinning around when she felt the familiar strength resonating from that single limb. Naruto looked at her with a simple, one word question in his eyes and she said, casting another jealous look to the people trooping into the village. "I want to go."

Naruto shook his head in exasperation, making the girl pout cutely. The red head chuckled and patted her head, pulling her woolly hat down to cover her ears, reflexively making sure his only friend didn't catch a cold. "They probably just want to go and make-out in the pub." He blew into his hands and rubbed them together. The girl was swaddled in a thick winter robe, warm regular clothing underneath, a pair of thick boots and gloves, while Naruto was in a green long sleeved sweater and black pants with normal black shoes, over it all he wore his house cloak.

He shuffled away from the door as a particularly cold gust of wind blew in, moving away from it and wedging himself into the small gap between the open right door and the wall. Tonks swiftly went with him to the gap and pushed herself into Naruto, bumping her forehead into his chin. "Who says I don't want to make-out in a pub?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, quickly getting used to how close Tonks insisted they be. "Do you even _know_ what making out means, Dora?"

The cute girl shrugged and Naruto laughed, his breathe washed over her face and she smiled as she inhaled it; his breathe smelt of a fireplace, burning merrily and invitingly.

"It means when two," or more, he added in his mind. "People kiss. Lip to lip. Tongue to tongue. _Spit_ to _spit_." The more details he added the wider his grin stretched and the more his voice became amused, most especially when his friend leaped away from him.

Tonks reared back and stuck out her tongue. "Ew." Naruto laughed louder, his pale cheeks reddening with warmth as he did so. A light bulb went off over her head and she slithered close to her friend, just almost falling over onto her face if Naruto had not caught her by her upper arms. She puckered her lips and Naruto's neck leaned all the way back, avoiding her.

"…What are you doing?"

"I want to try that kissing thing."

Naruto shoved her back and wagged his finger in front of her face, even as she hopped excitedly on her feet. "No, Dora. No kissing."

She leaped at him and the mafia boss smoothly slid under her and took a step back. "Aw c'mon Naruto. How about one kiss? Just one."

"I'm fine, thank you." Naruto replied with a raised eyebrow, slowly taking steps backwards as Tonks steadily approached him, a devilish grin on her face and her eyes twinkling with mischief. She lunged at him with her arms outstretched and the red head again dodged her. He saw eagerness and playfulness mesh together in her face; she truly wanted to kiss him but she also enjoyed seeing the Slytherin squirm at her advances. Her predatory approach to getting a kiss was getting her mind off Hogsmeade. The boy hid his smirk behind a wide eyed, frantic expression. Holding out his hands to her and making placating motions for her to calm down. "Now listen, Dora-" and he turned around and fled for dear life.

Tonks rolled up her sleeves and screamed out a war cry as she followed him, her lips leading the way. "Just. _One_. _**Kiss**_!"

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Playful Sniping_

When the two friends had separate classes that took up most of the time they only ever saw each other as they passed through the main hallway on the way to their next class.

Nearly always they walked in a gaggle of first years in their house; not close enough to many to be called friends but the other first years were close acquaintances. These group of first years, one being Hufflepuff and Slytherin, would sometimes purposely slow down when both friends met in the hallway, eavesdropping on the passing observations they would send each other, decelerating their quick trot to their next class only to briefly but only to shoot words that most found both funny and endearing.

Today it was Tonks that started. The crowd of Slytherin and Hufflepuff parted to show the smart red head and his dishevelled state; his potions partner had been especially inept in doing anything. The girl smirked saucily and said. "Well…you look like a hot mess."

Naruto briefly looked down at his Slytherin robe and scoffed, skimming his eyes over his friend's water drenched form, dripping water after with each step. She was squeezing water out of her clothes while a Hufflepuff first year helped blow her dry with hot air from her wand. "And you look like a troll just gave birth to you."

Tonks would always laugh and Naruto would always smile and they would exchange a friendly fist bump, adjust the books in their arms and walk off.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Break by the Lake_

The Namikaze descendant drew his hand back and cast a smooth stone onto the lake, watching as it skipped three times before a mermaid grabbed it and pulled it underwater. He hummed when he heard his name being called, looking from the corner of his eyes as Tonks skipped a stone twice on the icy cold lake. She stood three feet away from him. "Hey, Naruto?"

"Hmm?" this time he took a few small steps back, avoiding the small stack of books on the ground behind him. Two first year Transfiguration textbooks, three rolled up, heavily stained parchments, an ink pot and two quills. He rushed forward and flung his stone, only making it to the fourth hop on the water before a mermaid caught it.

"How are you so smart?" Tonks threw her stone and huffed as it only skipped twice again.

Naruto placed his hands on his hips and pursed his lips in thought. "What do you mean, Dora?"

She looked at him with a bland expression. "I mean, how are you so smart?" she puffed out a breathe as she hurled another stone. "It's not natural."

The red head scoffed and pointlessly juggled two stones in his hands. "_You're_ unnatural."

"Don't change the subject." She hissed with narrowed eyes, crossing her arms tightly.

Naruto shrugged weakly and turned around, looking at the other free students scattered around the lake and before the forest, but at a safe distance. "I enjoy reading."

The girl shook her head strongly. "I've only known you for four months and I already know when you're lying."

A twisted smirk crawled onto the boy's face. "Do you now."

She glared at him fiercely, again catching him as he tried to rile her up so that she could forget about her question. It was a trick he commonly used on her when he didn't want to answer a question concerning his past. "Naruto…"

The red head threw his hands up in resignation and said. "Ok, Fine….My foster mother made me read a lot of books when I was younger." She looked at him, patiently waiting for him to continue. "What more do you _want_ from me?"

She didn't reply, simply trudging up to him, narrowing her eyes light brown eyes as she stared up into his bright purple eyes. Then she beamed at him and grabbed his right hand with both of hers, dragging him down to the ground beside her. She moved closer to him on her knees and opened her textbook, retrieved her wand from the ground, lying beside Naruto's Kitsune core wand and jabbed the first chapter, Gamps Laws of Transfiguration, looking at her friend with a hesitant, uncertain smile. "Can you teach me this? Professor McGonagall might quiz us about them in her next class."

Naruto blinked at her once, then a friendly smile bloomed on his face. "Of course, Dora."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Herbology_

"The Peruvian Seagrape is a vital ingredient in the _Water Purifying_ potion, of which you will learn in your second year." Professor Pomona Sprout, the teacher of the Herbology class, said as she tapped the large transparent cylinder behind her with four inches of soil at the bottom and filled almost to the brim with water. The tap made the floating green and yellow bulbs, as small as a human eye, shiver and retract back into the ground, changing their colour to that of the soil when the soil didn't fully cover them.

The students listening to her began scribbling down notes. At the back of the class a red haired boy and a bubblegum haired girl were doing the same, or rather the boy was jotting down points and the girl was insistently jabbing her elbow into his side, calling for his attention. "Naruto, have you ever wondered why people think the DADA teaching position is cursed."

The boy kept on writing as he mumbled. "No, not really."

Tonks continued as if she had not heard him. "I heard from a few seniors that a former student applied for the job but Dumbledore rejected his application and the student jinxed the position."

"Fascinating." was Naruto's highly sarcastic reply.

"I know right?" she said in an almost high pitched, squeaky voice. Coughing into her fist when the teacher stopped to look at her, then she slowly went back to her topic. Tonks jabbed Naruto's ribs with her pointy elbow and the boy muffled his tired groan into a flare of his nostrils.

"_Yes_?"

"Why do you think the headmaster would reject his application?"

"Don't know, don't care."

"I think it's because Dumbledore didn't trust him." she again said like he was actively participating in the conversation.

"Is that so?" Naruto mechanically muttered.

"Uh huh, spooky right?"

"I've got chills."

"What kind of jinx do you think the guy used? It has to be a really strong one if it's able to affect an entire teaching position for who knows how long." This time Naruto remained silent, trying his best to look like a serious student, even as some of his housemates goofed off around by poking potted plants and gossiping in small groups. The Hufflepuff were a bit better, taking up most of the space directly in front of the woman, only a few looked like they were sleeping on their feet. There was a gaggle of gossiping girls to Naruto's left and they were sending quick looks to the pale red head, whispering a tittering into their hands with flushed smiles. The girl standing beside Naruto, Tonks, sent a glare over to them when one of the girls, a black haired beauty with tanned skin and dark brown eyes, hesitantly smiled welcomingly to Naruto, non-verbally inviting him to come closer. The boy, who at that time sighed and looked to the girls to see what all the fuss was about, furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but still sent back a small smile and a nod, returning back to his notes. Tonks ground her teeth and drove her elbow deep into her friend's side. "_**Naruto**_."

Naruto sighed and his arms dropped to his side with his jotter in his left hand and his pencil in his right. He looked over at his friend with a slight frown. "Yes, Dora."

The girl shot another glare to the Slytherin girls beside Naruto, frowning deeper and deeper at how brave they gradually became, from sending encouraging smiles and giggling amongst themselves to shuffling closer to the unmindful boy. She clenched her fists and reigned in the unknown storm of emotions spiralling in her chest and sending terrible, burning sensation through her heart. She shakily smiled at Naruto and asked. "Can we switch places?"

Naruto looked at her incredulously and shrugged limply. "Sure, ok."

"Great." She said with a wide grin and swept in front of him to his other side. Naruto moved to where she stood and looked up to the teacher at the front of the class, guessing where she was and continuing his jotting from there. While he was busy being a student, Tonks smiled victoriously to the group of glowering Slytherin girls.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Unwanted Popularity_

Naruto didn't consider himself a good looking boy.

He would admit that he saw himself more as a cute little boy, but this was only when he wanted to manipulate an adult; adults not in his gang nearly always saw him as adorable.

Hell, the first time he went shopping in Diagon Alley with Konan and Kakuzu by his side he lost count of how many times grown women stopped to pinch his cheeks and grown men pat his shoulder, telling him that he was going somewhere. The attention was fine and only because it was from the adult populace; adults could do anything you wanted them to do as long as you were persuasive, and one of the ways Naruto could be persuasive was by enlarging his iris, making them twinkle with stars and giving a small, innocent smile.

Here in Hogwarts, roughly four or five months into the session, he had gathered a sort of reputation.

He was first made aware of it during a History class with the Ravenclaw first years. The boy sitting by his right side, his roommate, Perry Bones, intercepted a small note that was to be sent to the Ravenclaw girl sitting two seats to Naruto's left, read it, directed Naruto an amused shake of his head and gave it to the bored red head to read.

_Oh my gosh, he looks so good today. Naruto has _the_ best eyes._

The boy scoffed, thinking nothing of the note, and passed it over to the red faced Ravenclaw.

After class the boy was making his way through the halls to his dorm, where he forgot to take his Potions textbook for class, which was going to be in thirty minutes.

This time he came upon a small crowd of Gryffindor girls, first and second years, tittering with their faces heavily flushed when Naruto rounded the third to the last corner before he got to the Slytherin dungeon. He disregarded them for a moment, only suspiciously walking on as they laughed and looked at him as he passed. The Gryffindors parted for him and just as Naruto was about to pass the last girl he heard.

"He is _such_ a rebel."

Naruto had to fight the impulse to turn around; he had a textbook to get and a class to attend, much more important things to deal with than trying to decipher the complexities of a girls mind and why exactly he was a rebel. As he hiked his side bag up his shoulder before it could slip off and turning around a corner to a flight of stairs going down he heard another girl reply.

"Ugh, he so is, and…his eyes are to _die_ for." There were small gasps from the other and a quick chatter of agreement.

The sound of giggling accompanied him down into the dungeons. He shook his head in exasperation and discarded it all from his mind; their opinion of him might change as soon as they saw his shark-like teeth.

But apparently people, especially the younger students from first to third years, found Naruto's defiance to his seniors extremely admirable.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff_

The crowd of students at the stands rippled with cheers as two rows of seven people flew out from the bleachers on broomsticks, separating to opposite sides of the field. One side wore green and the other yellow.

Naruto winced when an ear piercing scream-shriek sounded beside him. He shot an irritated look at the hyper-excited girl hopping on her feet next to him, clapping her hands and waving them over her head, yelling out her support for her house as well as the rest of the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor standing around them.

The game started and the bubbling roars of the fans didn't subside. The red head shot another look at his friend as she slammed into his side, threw her right arm over his shoulder and started bouncing on her feet in tune with the other Puffs. The girl sensed his discomfort and grinned at him. "C'mon Naruto, why aren't you cheering? Your house is playing!"

He frowned a little as he looked directly above him where the two seekers raced after a small blur of gold. "I don't really get the fuss about Quiddich, that's all."

The girl looked at him, aghast, and looked around to make sure no one had heard him. "Any louder and you would have been lynched."

The boy shrugged uncaringly. "I'm just saying."

She rolled her eyes and calmed down somewhat. "Don't they play Quiddich back in…your country…?"

Naruto held down the sharp smirk that wanted to shoot off his face at her hesitance, he cleared his throat and furrowed his eyes, looking genuinely confused, and adorable, in Tonks opinion. "My country?"

The girl choked. "Yeah, you know…" she subtly motioned for him to fill her in. "Your…country…?"

He raised his eyebrows and tilted his chin up a little, a small, unimpressed smile danced on his lips as he asked. "And…what country is that…?"

"Uh…"

"…Yes?"

She blanched and weakly shrugged. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

Naruto shook his head and turned back to the game. "I've told you where I'm from _five_ times."

"I really don't know where my mind was all those times."

"Konoha, Japan." He simply said and sent a forgiving smile. "Try not to forget it this time."

She nodded and whooped as her house scored a goal; the scorer took a lap around the field, and over them, before he returned back to his position. She then gained a mischievous look and turned to Naruto. "What about me-"

"Wentleford County." Her friend replied without looking at her.

"How about my mom-"

"Andromeda Tonks, nee Black."

The girl felt her head sink lower between her shoulders as embarrassment overcame her. "My…dad-"

"Ted Tonks."

The girl grimaced and Naruto smirked in accomplishment, still not looking at her. "Cousin-"

"Delphini and Draco, but your parents aren't on good terms with the Malfoys so you haven't ever met him but he's younger than you by about five or six years." He recounted to her word for word what she told him.

Her mood took a big dip; she could hardly remember anything about her friend but he remembered every single thing she told him, down to the Malfoys dislike for her parents. She was about to turn to leave the stands, so she could wallow in misery at how bad of a friend she was, but stopped when a gentle hand wrapped around her right wrist. She timidly looked down; allowing the person to pull her back to his side and huffing sadly at the wide, laughing smirk she knew was on the red heads face. "It's fine."

"But-"

"Shhhhhhhhh… It's fine."

Her hair flushed red and she scuffed her foot on the ground. "Ok."

Naruto's hand dropped back to his side and he slowly lifted his fist into the air, coughed into his other hand with a light dusting of red on his cheeks and then he lowly cheered when the Slytherin Chaser passed caught the Quaffle and slammed it into one of the three ring shaped goals. "Hurray…"

Tonks covered her mouth at his stiff cheer and giggled when he looked at her from the corner of his eyes with a knowing smile.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Astronomy_

The red haired shark-toothed boy squinted with his eyebrows furrowed as he peered into a golden telescope, looked down and wrote down the names of two stars he had spotted and then went back to staring at the starlit night sky through his telescope.

"Vilumious X8X2…" he muttered under his breathe and wrote down the name, a meticulous description of the star and the type of the star, then he looked at the star once more to make sure before he turned the silver dial closest to the telescopes looking hole (A/N: forgot the name) and pursed his lip as he saw another star his professor had said the class should find. "Horatio Blue-Yellow…" he blinked when he heard a polite cough behind him.

"Naruto." He turned and looked up at his tall, slimly built Professor Sinestra. The mocha skinned professor was the source of many of the students wet dreams, this was a given with her exotic beauty and her unknowingly seductive silver eyes. She was probably close to Flitwick's age but she most definitely looked like she was entering her thirties. The woman smiled patronizingly down at her student and Naruto rubbed the corner of his lips with his wrist, swallowing thickly.

"Yes, professor?"

The teacher moved aside and gently nudged forward a little girl that was just about Tonks height. The girl looked almost identical to the tall professor, with her smooth dark hair flowing down her head to her shoulders in curly waves and her bright silver eyes spinning up a storm. The girl had light mocha skin with a cute splash of freckles over her nose. She was also wearing the Ravenclaw uniform and hugging the small _Astronomy for First years: Part One_ textbook in her arms and hefting a small purple backpack on her back. The girl pursed her lips tightly and looked away from Naruto to the note in his right hand. The teacher urged her forward and said. "This is my niece, Valery Estrella Fanger. I was hoping you could show her the first three stars I tasked the class to find and guide her through the rest; she seems to be having a bit of trouble."

Naruto wanted to remind her that _she_ was the teacher but held his tongue when he realized that it would be perceived as rude. He looked at the girl briefly, who was still studying the noted stars in his hand, eight in total, then the woman. Sinestra saw the question he wanted to ask.

"I need to quickly retrieve quickly something from my chamber and, seeing as you're my best student; I would appreciate it if you help put her through."

Naruto couldn't help the proud upward twitch of his lips at the title; so far she, Flitwick and McGonagall had admitted it. Admittedly he was having problems with Potions, like every other student in the castle and he wasn't too invested in Defence Against the Dark Arts because the teacher of that subject, Professor Corpus Maximillion, was an idiot. Still, the woman was buttering him up to agree to help her niece. Naruto nodded and said. "Ok."

"Thank you, twenty points to Slytherin." And she left the two students. The Ravenclaw girl finally slid her eyes up the Slytherin and she breathed in as much courage as possible, releasing the breathe and stretching her right hand to Naruto.

"Valery."

"Naruto."

He shook her hand firmly and released it. "My aunt tells me how attentive you are, and not to her looks."

"I've not yet reached the age of being interested in females." Naruto answered truthfully as he returned to his telescope, motioned for the girl to set her textbook down on the small table he had his books on and come closer. Valery had a forced easy, outgoing personality, like she was trying her best to impress the boy but she could not fully suppress her discreet evaluation of him as she swept her eyes over him, flushing a little when she saw what the other girls saw in him; an adorable, welcomingly smiling boy.

The girl smirked in interest and slipped near him, dropping her book and her bag on the table. "Wonderful." She then quickly glanced at his note again and said in a low voice. "I hope you don't mind me bringing you back to the first star; you're already on the last one."

"It won't be proper if I don't help a fellow student in need, especially when I can."

The girl idly nodded and commented. "Your…not like other Slytherin, not the ones I've seen."

Naruto peeked at her then stared into his telescope as he pointed at the first star on the list, ignoring her statement. "Read the first one."

"Porputentia Cosmasios 5657."

He moved aside and politely motioned for her to take the telescope, saying. "Now if you want to find that star you need to find a cluster of Cosmasios stars using the description of its location in the textbook…"

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Learning 'Magic' from a Fraud_

Professor Corpus Maximillion was an idiot.

That was Naruto's impression of the man.

The man stood tall with golden locks, sparkling blue eyes and an ever present cocky smirk. In their first class he had strutted into classroom and showered the students with golden lights, mesmerizing some of them, mostly muggle-born that weren't used to seeing such magic, and 'hypnotizing' the girls with his tales of adventures.

The first ever thing he told the class was that _he_ was the one that taught Gildfroy Lockhart everything he knew. That was the first thing that shut Naruto's mind and finalized his decision that the man was a big fraud.

He _knew_ Lockhart; his gang had caught him three years ago when he had tried to infiltrate their base in Konoha with the intention of stealing a lock of Kaguya's hair from her bedroom pillow to sell in the black market. Lockhart didn't even make it passed the front gate. If a man could proudly walk in and claim to be the person that taught that failed celebrity-wizard then he was a much bigger fraud than Naruto could give him credit, and the rubbish he taught them in the name of Defence magic…

It was sad.

At one time the man had let loose a Boggart in the class in an attempt at showing them how he tamed one in Macedonia.

Many students had to be sent to the Hospital wing from being traumatized.

The man didn't even show up most of the time, and if he did he came several minutes late and gave a flimsy excuse that he was _"Battling a Horde of Plumbimdingy Pixies that had infested the castles top floor."_ But the boys all knew he was simply trying to flirt with Professor Sinestra, and failing miserably.

His classes mainly involved him retelling stories, obviously fictitious ones, of his travels around the world with his student Lockhart. The only time so far that he had tried to teach them was a jinx that he claimed _"Saved him from being devoured by Icelandic Trolls"_, which was a simple foot fastening spell that stuck the feet to the ground.

Naruto finally deemed the class useless and a total waste of time when the teacher on one occasion spent the whole time flirting with students _forty_ years his junior; clearly leaping into a buffer he was almost certain would catch him after Sinestra had completely rebuffed his advances. It was even sadder that the adoration of the man came to a screeching halt when he started his paedophilic advances; the first year boys and girls of all four houses had even started studying defensive jinxes on their own in case the man went too far.

None of the first years were amused, thankfully, and his class, starting three months into the semester until the end, simply had to do with them faking adoration and hiding their wands under their tables.

Never in Hogwarts history had a group of first years been so likeminded and mature enough to see the blaring warning signs flashing before them.

Quite frankly the mafia boss felt rather proud of them.

The boy spent the class catching up on his sleep at the back of his class with his head cushioned in his arms and snoring mutely with his mouth slightly open. The Slytherin and Gryffindors around him clenched their wands in their tight hands. His fellow first years respected him, irrespective of the houses they were in; they saw the boy as a rebel that scarcely listened to illogical demands from seniors and did not abide by the norm of his house. The students weren't aware of it at that time but they were _guarding_ the boss as he took his nap.

In the fifth month of the semester the man preened under the faux praise and looked over the sea of his 'admiring' fans. Then he caught sight of the soundly sleeping red head at the back, the only student that was sleeping, seeing as the others were rigidly sitting in their seats and watching him like a hawk.

The man's first mistake was trying to make a fool of the red head. "Watch me, dear students, as I do to that boy what I did to the Irish Pepper plant." He waved his wand and five balloons filled with an array of different colours of paint flew to Naruto's sleeping form.

Two Slytherins', a boy and a girl, rose up before Naruto and pointed their wands at the balloons. _"Protego!"_

A single, barely corporal shield fizzled into sight and the balloons bounced back, splashing on the surprised man's face. Naruto sputtered awake and rubbed his eyes, yawning widely. He blinked when he saw an enraged blonde man storm to him and grabbed the boy and girl under their arms. The class was roaring with laughter at the man's expense, even more so when the Slytherin stuck out their tongues. "A hundred points from Slytherin and detention for a month. The insolence-"

The red head immediately realized what they had done for him, with the paint spattered on the teacher's robes and the triumphant smiles on their faces as they looked at Naruto. The sharp glimpse into the boy's memories also filled him in. Naruto jeered through his now normal sized pupils and steadily got to his feet, stretching and rolling his shoulders twice.

The class slowly stopped laughing and looked at the red head. The man fixed him with a glare and ordered. "And you, sleeping in class while I regal you a tale of my adventure in-"

Naruto's Kitsune core wand slid into his left hand from his sleeve and he pointed it at the man. _"Engorgio Skullus."_ The man screamed as his head inflated like a balloon till it scraped against the low hanging iron chandelier hanging over the class. He stumbled backwards and dropped onto his back, his head too heavy to support. The sound of childish laughter was almost deafening as the Slytherin and Gryffindors cackled and chortled at him. He fumbled for his wand and countered Naruto's hex, rising up to his feet and glowering at the highly amused boy. That hex was nothing to play with; if it was not quickly countered then it would only keep growing and growing until his neck would snap.

As Maximillion staggered towards Naruto, getting about halfway to the boy, the rest of the class took this as their chance to shoot the defensive and offensive spells they had learnt during their personal time.

If it had been any other teacher all of the students would have been sent home for suspension, but since Dumbledore lured the man in to expose him as a fraud he convinced the other teachers to go easy on the young students. At the end of the day all of them got a month's worth of detention and two hundred points taken away from both houses.

But they had no regrets whatsoever, because when the semester ended Corpus Maximillion quit.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Family_

A number of Pureblood families had gotten wind of an extremely rich family that had purchased an old mansion and several acres of land near Wiltshire, where the Malfoys reside. They had come in their numbers to welcome the possibly influential family but had found only Konan at home, seeing as Kakuzu was working in the Ministry and Sasori was in Wales breaking a curse over a small family there.

The woman had been in charge of restoring and renovating the mansion to Naruto's taste and she did just that, spending three weeks in the house fixing the building and rejuvenating the land as well as employing house elves from those that had no families to take care of, courtesy of the Ministry, to take care of the vast property. The head of the Rosier house, Alvarian Rosier, visited with his wife, Miranda Rosier, in the morning and met the purple haired woman sitting before the fireplace, reading a book.

Konan informed them that her nephew, Naruto, was in Hogwarts and the boys uncles were at work.

Even though she was the only one at home she made sure to display her wealth to the Rosier's, impressing the Pureblood family with her eloquence and grace.

She hid the fact that the money all came from Naruto's dead relatives. It was true; the boy had collected his inheritance from House Namikaze and House Uzumaki, seeing as he was the last in line of the former great house and a descendent of the royal family in the latter house. He was named the sole inheritor of the House Sarutobi wealth and bloodline if the old warlock's children met their end and, naturally because he was the (adopted) child of the only remaining Otsutsuki he was given all of the veela house's wealth.

The visiting Purebloods didn't need to know that.

All Konan told them, all Naruto instructed her to tell them, was that she was simply Naruto's guardian until he was old enough to personally manage the estate and the vast wealth.

The young Yakuza boss already had connections in low places _and_ high places back in his home, but in Britain he wanted to start by 'befriending' the most influential houses; the Pureblood houses.

Before the first visiting Pureblood family left, they invited her to a ball the other Pureblood families were having a week after Hogwarts was to go on vacation, just so that they could meet the woman's nephew. The Malfoys, Greengrasses, Patels and Crabbes also came by to gauge the newly occupied, lavish mansion, finding it beneath them that the woman had no last name but finding respect in how much she _commanded_ respect with her mere presence.

No doubt she was mirroring her boss, unbeknownst to her guests.

They extended their invite to her and Naruto.

The boy wrote his permission for her to mingle with the families as much as she was comfortable as long as she kept her guard up and ensured that she was not manipulated, fully believing that the wonderful actress that was also a stone cold dark mage was ready to handle any obstacle the Purebloods threw at her. He also detailed that the gate around the estate was to be well-enchanted to prevent any adventurous wizard from entering; a few weeks ago, the house elves caught a man by name Mundungus Fletcher trying to steal an old, incredibly expensive map of Magical Japan that used to belong to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Tonks curiously watched Naruto encase a neatly folded letter into an envelope, enchant it with a _For Authorized Eyes Only_ charm and strap it onto Saru's left ankle. He stroked the smart birds head and whispered into his ear. "Give this to Konan and wait for her response."

_Squaaaaack!_ The bird flapped his wings, accepting his master's message, and flew out of the Owlry.

The boy ran his hands down his Slytherin cloak and regarded Tonks as she moved to his side, watching the Suna owl fly away from the school. "How come you never talk about your family?" The boy turned around and walked out room, closely followed behind by the pink haired girl. Her forehead creased in worry, wondering if she had said something wrong. "Naruto?"

"I have a large family."

"Then why don't you ever want to talk to me about them? I talk to you about _my_ family all the time."

"I never asked you to tell me about your family, Dora."

The girl stopped for a brief moment and Naruto didn't, storming down the long, winding stairs of the second tower down to the top floor of the castle. He only got down six steps before Tonks ran up to him and slid in front of him, shoving him back with her eyes red with anger. "I told you because you're my friend. I told you because I _trust_ you."

The boy stumbled back a few steps and his eyes darkened, a small snarl crawled up his face and the girls rage sputtered before she forced it back on, tilting her chin up in defiance. "I _never_ asked you to trust me."

The girls fists balled tightly by her sides and she held down the urge to punch her friend, channelling all her bubbling anger into shoving him back again, forcing him up a few more stairs. "Well I do."

Naruto's snarl became more pronounced and his purple eyes turned red, squeezing into a vague vulpine shape. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what trust _is_."

The girl found the enraged, evil eyes affected her in the opposite way Naruto intended for it to; it made her mad, it made her _furious_, it set her heart on fire and she punctuated each word with a brave, strong shove from her thin arms against the boy's chest. "Then. Tell. Me." Naruto staggered back with each push, his eyes becoming wide and his shark-like teeth elongating out of his mouth as he bared them at her. The girl went up to him and poked his chest, looking up into his deranged eyes with strong brown eyes, not wavering even the slightest, which was remarkable for an eleven year old. "Talk to me Naruto."

"I don't have to-"

"No you don't _have_ to, but you can." Her lips trembled and she poked his chest again, saying. "You should."

Naruto stole a look around him; the night sky was speckled with stars and the only occupants of the Owlry behind him were the eagerly listening owls. He closed his eyes and breathed out, his breathe washed over her face and the familiar, longing smell of a warm furnace calmed her down. She too closed her eyes and, forgetting how close to her friend she was standing, leaned her head forward, sighing when she felt her friends soft clothes, savouring the soothing smell of lavender and his peculiar fireplace scent. He was stressed. A few minutes ago Dumbledore sent him a letter to report to his office at the end of the semester to talk about his parents and his grandfather. Orochimaru sent him a letter, confessing to him that he had fitted his mother _twice_, one time when she was younger but her wand melted when the core couldn't take her magical strength anymore and the second time was with a core made out her own hair, meaning Naruto had been lugging around a piece of his mother for the past year and he didn't know. Konan informed him about the increasing attention the Purebloods were giving him; inviting Naruto to parties they were organizing, they both knew that these purebloods only wanted to see how much money they could siphon from him, probably by having their daughters marry him. Nagato reported that there was nothing to note of back in Japan, but he knew better; his age was always a recurring problem they didn't mention. And last was his Goblin accountant had been sifting through the Sarutobi and Uzumaki inheritance and noted that five magical texts, seven historical scrolls, fifteen priceless artefacts and an enchanted cauldron were missing from the Sarutobi, which was strange because they had all been stated in the Sarutobi's will and testament, and a single, unknown artefact from the Uzumaki which wouldn't have been noticed if not for it being flippantly mentioned in _History of the Whirlpool: Not Just an Island but the People too_ by Mito Uzumaki. Naruto appreciated the detail Shifty the goblin to in looking after his assets. These for problems put him on edge, especially the fact that Kaguya probably used her second wand, his wand, as a Horcrux and the threat of an uprising in the Yakuza. "I apologize; I'm just a bit worked up."

The girl smiled fractionally and lifted her head so that her nose could fully immerse itself in his clothes, her eyes peacefully shut. "I noticed."

His hands stayed at his side, his eyebrows slowly entered his hairline when he realized she was sniffing him. He stood stock still and allowed her, staring straight behind her at the darkness of the stairs leading down, of which at the Great hall the students were having dinner. He cleared his throat and the girl took a shaky, shy step back. "I grew up with my grandfather and my uncle and aunt, they all died when I was five and I was soon…'adopted' into a family. My foster mother died two years ago or so but my extended family are still looking out for me."

She looked down to his red sneakers, peeking out from the bottom of his house robe. "What about your parents…?"

"Died before I knew them." the boy answered uncaringly.

"But…if you were adopted…then why don't you have a last name…?"

"I don't want my foster mothers name." he moved past her and made to go back down the stairs again, stopping when he got to the door. "I'm a very private person, Tonks; I've been through a lot for me to start trusting people again."

Her shoulders slumped and her eyes glazed over with tears. "You don't trust me." she concluded but whipped around when she heard a stifled laugh. Her eyes roared at him when she saw his lips tightly pursed to hold in a chuckle.

"I don't distrust you, Dora."

Hope lifted her shoulders and she raced past her friend with a large grin, grabbing his hand and dragging him along down the stairs. "It's a start."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Wotcher Snake!_

Hogwarts was affecting him, for good and for bad.

Good as in he had somehow spread his influence and affluence among his fellow students, First to Third, probably Fourth, years, and all without knowing. This gave him a large network of occasional friends and constant acquaintances that began to fearlessly approach him for help, mostly concerning their academic work, capitalizing on the red haired Slytherin's brain, and the other times simply speak to him, but this was always when Tonks was not around and when he was hanging out by himself near the lake, his and his first friends special haunt.

The bad side was that associating with the children and constantly being ahead of his teachers tired him out. Leading the Yakuza was always going to be worse than being a student of Hogwarts, but being around the lesser experienced wizards and learning from teachers he could probably slaughter in a fair or unfair duel put a small strain on his patience.

He still hadn't found the reason he agreed to school in Hogwarts.

"Wotcher, Snake!" Tonks yelled and pounced out from behind a tree and fell on the sleeping form of her friend Naruto in a spread-eagle belly flop.

The boy yelped and caught the girl as she fell down on him, turning her over onto her back with him towering over her and pressing down her neck to the ground with his left hand and pointing his Kitsune core wand between her eyes, the hot white tip crackled with energy, ever ready to shoot a _Blasting Hex_ straight into the skull of his attacker. His shark-teeth were grit and his purple eyes spun, mixing and intertwining with flecks of red and blue, before he blinked, adjusting his eyes back to normal and groaned in deep frustration when he saw that the 'enemy' he had in his hand was his frightened, shocked silent friend, who held up both of her hands in surrender and stayed mute. The boy shakily released hold of her neck and sat back heavily on his behind, glaring hatefully at the girl with his eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Damn it Dora, don't startle me." he stashed his wand into his sleeve and leaned back into the old tree, fighting to regain his breathe.

The girl unsteadily sat up, still staring wide eyed at the sleepy red head. "W-where'd you learn to do _that_?"

The boy simply replied. "Rough childhood."

"_That_ _rough_? Those were Auror skills, Naruto." Her voice was fighting down the trembled that rose up her chest. She swallowed thickly and asked. "Who _taught_ that to you?"

"I taught it to myself." He quickly answered as he closed his eyes, trying to gently coax his fleeing slumber back. "What's wrong, Dora? Need help with your homework?"

The girl regarded him uncertainly before she shuffled near him on her knees, pressing them into his side, but he was almost back to sleep. "Don't you have DADA now?"

"Felt like skipping." He muttered and licked his lips and mumbled. "Haven't learnt a thing from that man, stopped bothering a week ago."

The girl smirked at his attitude and gently prodded his leg, careful not to startle him again. Naruto opened a single, bright purple eye and hummed for her to talk; watching as she looked around the tree Naruto was lazing under and found that more than a few Gryffindor and Slytherin were speckled around in groups of various sizes. He smirked minutely when she turned back to him, a knowing look in her brown eyes. "Seems everyone else thinks the same thing."

"Do they? I haven't noticed."

"Y'know if the Dumbledore or McGonagall get wind of this you're _all_ in hot water." She made sure to emphasize 'all' by waving her hands around her, attracting the attention of the other truant students.

His smirk went up a little to show his sharp teeth, winking at her. "They know."

For a moment, quicker than a second, Tonks wanted to call out his bluff; tell him that he was full of unicorn shit, but when she looked at Naruto again and the boy subtly nodded his head to his right, laced his fingers over his belly and hummed as he closed his eyes, she looked to where he was nodding and saw Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, standing at the large front door of the castle, waving his Elder wand to the crowd of mingling Gryffindor and Slytherin. Thick white scrolls floated out from a random window, one for each truant student, and in the scroll was a detailed theory on how to cast a proper _Shield_ charm, an _Engorgement_ hex, an _Unbreakable Bubble Summoning_ charm and the hand written assignment at the bottom informed them that they were to learn the theory behind the _Stun_ jinx. The man briefly watched the students roll open the scrolls and then flip open their textbooks, some rushed immediately towards Naruto and set up camp around him, waiting patiently for the boy to wake up and help them study. Dumbledore gave them a grandfatherly smile and walked back into the castle, replaced by the tight lipped assistant headmistress, who only showed her satisfaction at their somewhat eagerness to learn Defence magic through her bespectacled eyes. She crossed her arms and supervised them from afar.

Naruto hummed again, this time it sounded like a low laugh. "They know." He repeated.

Tonks snatched her friends scroll and scanned it as he sat up, stretching and yawning into the back of his right hand. She said as she looked up from the frustratingly detailed scroll. "So no detention for you guys?"

The boy shook his head. "Oh no, we still get detention." He looked at her as her shoulders slumped, handing him his scroll. "Something wrong?"

She puffed out a breathe and looked at him with dull eyes. "How are you always so cool?"

He stared back at her, mirroring her dull look. "You do remember I almost killed you, right?"

"You know what I mean." She scoffed with a roll of her eyes and a playful shove.

He gave her a secretive look, one between two friends that no student sitting around them could decipher and the answer spun into her mind two seconds later as he turned to Charlie Weasley and put him through the theories.

_Rough childhood_.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Favourite Colour_

"What's your favourite colour?" Tonks asked out of the blue, appearing behind Naruto from seemingly out of nowhere.

Naruto was well past the stage of yelping at any surprise when he was wide awake, but he did wince as his ink pot tipped onto his homework. He sighed dourly and retrieved his wand from his side bag hanging on the corner of his chair, mutely sending the librarian an apology for his friend's outburst. "Excuse me?"

"What's your favourite colour?" she asked again, biting her lip and hopping from one foot to the other in excitement. He swept his wand over his homework, two parchments long and detailed enough to make Snape's brain throb. The ink vanished off his painstakingly done homework and reappeared inside the pot. He cast another look at his friend, who looked like she was going to pee on herself, and rolled his eyes.

"Can't you guess?"

She looked over him and her excitement took a quick but brief dip when she saw he was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with the Slytherin badge on his left chest, black pants that reached a bit over his ankles and red sneakers. There was a green and silver scarf peeking out of his side bag. He had left his house cloak in his dorm, seeing as it was a Sunday and he had homework to complete. She was brought out of her mind by smooth scribbling sounds coming from the Slytherins quill. She sat down to his right and hopped closer to his side, shaking the table and making Naruto stop his writing to hold the ink pot down firmly until she stopped moving to him. "Black?"

Naruto scoffed and said. "No…magenta."

"Your favourite colour is _magenta_?"

"I'm joking." He said as he switched his quill from his right hand to his left, dipped the tip of his quill into the ink pot and gliding his hand over his homework, shooting his eyes from three open textbook spread out before him and to the parchment, and then to his friend, watching him do his homework. "My favourite colour is vermilion. Why?"

His answer was her whipping out her wand from her pocket and pointing it at his shirt. _"Multicorfors."_

The tip of the wand fizzled and bright red light shot out, smashing into the boys chest as he looked up at her, too close to dodge her spell. He toppled off his chair and onto his back, coughing and waving away the thick white smoke that covered their area of the library.

Naruto glared at his friend but the girl stared back at him with wide eyes, her jaw dropped and all the colour of her hair and skin leached off her body. Then she turned a worrying shade of red and her eyes slid up his body, meeting his enraged eyes. Her friend was lying on his back, propping himself back up with his elbows, in a puffy, bell shaped dress. His pale shoulders were bare and a pair of glass high heels adorned his feet. The dress was also in an eye watering shade of pink.

But that was the least of Naruto's problems, realizing too late that the bottom of his dress was starched, flashing his boxers to the incredibly flustered girl. The boss rolled to his side and quickly got to his feet, unconsciously smoothing down the front of his shoulder-less dress with shaky arms.

Shoulder…less…

"Oh shit." He cursed out loud, realizing another thing, possibly one of the things that made the usually outgoing pink haired girl deathly silent.

His tattoos.

He grabbed his wand and ran without looking, stumbling once when his feet caught the dress under them, but regaining his footing before he could face plant into the tiled floor. He shoved aside the librarian as she went up to him, immediately assuming that he was the cause of the white smoke in the section of the library he was in. He ran his wand up his torso to his neck and his clothes reverted back to normal.

The Hufflepuff stared silently as he ran away.

Three months since Naruto's miraculous display of magic against the older students and the girl was always trying to impress him with the little she knew. The spell she had used was a fourth year spell and she had botched the pronunciation and wand movement so much, changing Naruto's clothes into a bright pink shoulder-less, Victorian style dress instead of simply changing his black clothes to red.

She wanted to show her friend that she could also read on an advanced level, that he didn't need to protect her like he did against the seniors.

She wanted him to be speaking to her about advanced magic he knew. Expressing himself more to her knowing that she was just as smart as him.

She wanted to share a deep connection with her first friend because he took her eccentricities and her randomness patiently. Tonks knew that he was still uncomfortable with how clingy she was and she was taking steps to stop always pushing up against him, so that he could get used to her at his own pace.

She didn't see her friend for the rest of the semester, not even to return his homework and his side bag.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Dursley residence_

The five year old boy found himself, once again, making breakfast for his family when he heard a knock on the door. He winced as he pushed the spatula under the sunny side up eggs he had on the frying pan, feeling the fresh welts on his back rub against his oversized, rough shirt. Now, whenever his uncle Vernon felt like it he would rip open his staircase-bedroom door, drag him out and whip him for no good reason except to vent the frustrations of that day.

He flinched as he heard his uncle's voice boom from the living room, where he was gobbling up plates of buttered toast and eggs. "GO GET THE DOOR, RUNT!"

Harry swallowed and hopped down the wooden stool he used to reach the stove. Hobbling over to the front door. He stood up on his toes and grabbed the door knob, turning it to the right and pulling it back. The boys green eyes looked up at the person standing on the other side of the door. He cleared his throat and asked. "May I help you, sir?"

The person standing on the other side of the door smirked widely, slightly exposing his serrated teeth. His purple eyes twinkled as he looked down at the weak child before him, the boy who lived. Naruto nodded and said. "You can help me find the silver coin, Harry."

Minutes later and Vernon Dursley roared for more eggs, supported by his pudgy son, Dudley, but Harry Potter was already gone by then.

This was merely an hour after the students of Hogwarts had returned home for break.

Most of the wizarding world was oblivious to this.

The squib of Privet drive gaped in horror and hastily wrote a letter to Albus Dumbledore.

**Authors note**

**So…there might be a revolt in the Yakuza, someone's stole property from the Sarutobi (and no, it's not Kaguya, cuz all she stole was retrieved) and an Uzumaki artefact is missing too.**

**And now, he's gone and kidnapped the Boy Who Lived.**

**Leave your thoughts in a review, if you please. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello hello guys and gals, thank you for all your kind words!**

**Shout out to Noah Rhodes, GamerX568, TheForgottenSuns75, anoyak111, Darck Master, lord 7th, machtgut and xirons20. Your all freakin' awesome :)**

**To GamerX568: newp, I meant George.**

**To anoyak111: I did my research and I found out that Tonks was in her seventh year while Harry was in his first (in canon), that makes her about six years older than Harry. Thanks for the review!**

**To machtgut: there's no overly special or amazing reason behind me making Naruto's hair red; I just like red hair. Weird? I don't think so. I appreciate the hell out of you for sticking around :)**

**The pace of the story increases in the chapter. I'll admit…I don't know why it's this late in the story I decided to get to the Freakin' point but eh, whatever. I appreciate you guys for staying.**

**And I hope you enjoy reading…**

CHAPTER 5

_A day after the end of the semester_

_Kazoku Manor_

He listened carefully as the fire crackled. Soft, low popping that came from the dry wood burning in the large, black marble fireplace. White and red flames licked and rippled through the fireplace, creating vague images of creatures and monsters, dancing in the mellow whirlwind of blistering hot fire. Demons of the dark that moved in the fire, beaming at the him, beckoning him to come nearer.

Not corporal, not real, all in his head, but he couldn't help but close his eyes and sigh.

He used to love listening to fire crackle in the hearth; it reminded him of when he was still with the Sarutobi's. Asuma could be reading him a book or Akuma could be playing on the piano for the family, her smooth but strong voice rocking the house, making the world sway side to side as musical notes popped around her, playfully nudging the red haired child and insisting he join along, even if his voice sounded like a squeaky, helium filled balloon. Grandpa Sarutobi would always chuckle merrily at his attempt and motion for him to go on, to not let anything stop him from singing.

From being happy.

Fire didn't remind him of his dead family, a burning fireplace did.

A campfire.

A bonfire.

Anywhere people could gather to get warm.

They all reminded him of the family he never had and the family he had lost.

Through it all, the fireplace was what kept him alive, but listening to it now, watching as his mental demons twisted what he loved into grotesque forms, inviting him to just jump into the fire and end his miseries.

It put him on edge.

He didn't like being on edge.

The boys reflective purple eyes stared at the fire and his right hand, perched up on the armrest of his massive, cushiony chair, swished around the wine glass filled with a sparkling yellow liquid.

He had been in that position for longer than he would want to admit, remembering what Dumbledore had said on the last night of the semester.

"_Hiruzen was a great friend of mine." The wizened old man started, lacing his fingers together on his desk and leaning back in his chair, looking at the little boy sitting before him with aged eyes. "I met him in-"_

_Naruto tore his eyes away from the headmasters as he felt them fill with tears, looking at a shelf where a stone basin lay. Not wanting to hear the rest of what Dumbledore wanted to say, he asked. "Why am I here, sir?"_

"_Five years ago, on that fateful night, I received a _Failsafe letter_ from Hiruzen." A Failsafe letter was a letter that could only be sent if the caster had died, naturally or not. "He requested I enrol you into Hogwarts when you were of age." A letter flew off his desk and landed into Naruto's waiting hands. The boys fists tightened on the fragile letter as he recognized his grandfather's curly handwriting, even perceiving the man's signature cologne. He didn't feel ready to open the letter; if he did he would lose all composure._

_The boy gently folded the letter and stashed it into his Slytherin robes, rubbing his eyes with the corner of his wrists as he asked. "How was he so sure Kaguya would be out of the picture? She certainly won't allow me to attend this school."_

"_He wrote that you were a special boy." Naruto breathed out and closed his eyes, squeezing the ends of his robe with his small hands. The words hit him with the strength of a moving train. "He was aware of the Namikaze tradition."_

_Naruto looked down, his eyes still tightly shut, and nodded once._

_The House Namikaze was a Yakuza house._

_When a Namikaze child reaches the age of eleven they would officially join the ranks of the Yakuza, only getting their membership tattoos when they reached the age of sixteen. A few cases had shown that there were children that had gotten their tattoos when they were nine, but that was on rare occasions. The members of the House Namikaze were legendary wizards and witches, so much so that they were comparable to the Uchiha, the Senju and the Hyuuga. But despite their unreal skills and power, they had been taken out by some Ministry workers that felt that they could destroy the Yakuza, spiking the water system of the House and killing them all._

"_In the letter," Dumbledore continued. "Hiruzen found that the Yakuza would definitely discover a Namikaze and forcefully make you join because any Namikaze would be an asset to the gang. He wasn't sure if he would be around for long and if it came to be that you were made to join he only wanted you to have the childhood that was taken from you back." Far away from home._

_Naruto cleared his throat politely and asked, his hair shading his eyes as he kept his eyes lowered and his hands gripping his knees. "He only wanted me to have a childhood?"_

_The man lilted on his seat and shook his head. "No, not only that."_

"_Then?"_

"…_Do you know the story of Harry Potter?" Naruto's eyes narrowed fractionally and he nodded. "Your parents were very close with his. They were like siblings." The man sighed wistfully, remembering how Minato and Kushina, when they were still alive, always spent Christmas with the Potters. "Lily was your father's penpal and James and your mother used to be classmates, albeit Kushina was in Slytherin and James was in Gryffindor-"_

"_Sir." Naruto interrupted and Dumbledore laughed._

"_Ah, yes. Hiruzen wanted you to be friends with young Harry."_

_Naruto shook his head and said. "I know my grandfather; he won't say that." the boy stood up and straightened his robe. "And I am not obligated to be friends with Harry."_

"_No, you're not. Maybe you should find time to read that letter."_

The red head swirled his glass of wine and hummed when soft feet padded to his side. He didn't look up as Konan, dressed in a dark purple dress with the signature red cloud pin on her left chest, bowed slightly and muttered.

"Another letter, boss."

The boy didn't answer her, only pursing his lips. His eyes drooped heavily and he stopped moving his wine glass, staring emptily at the fire.

"The girl…" Konan started, licking her lips as she tried to find her courage. "I do not think she knows the meaning of your marks, boss."

There was a minute of pure silence before Naruto whispered. "…but I know…" the chair creaked a little as the boy shifted, looking up at the pale woman with quivering orbs. "_I_. _Know_."

The woman gently placed the letter on the arm of the chair and got onto her knees, looking into her bosses eyes. Speaking before she could stop herself. "She is your friend, sir."

Naruto looked at her, his forehead wrinkled and his eyes shaking.

There were two sides to a person; one side people see and the other people didn't. Naruto took to guarding his second side, the side that felt the shame and agony he felt on a daily basis for leading the gang that ruined his life. It was the side that constantly felt sorry for himself and for what he had become; a mere child that had defeated wizards and witches five times his age. It was his weak side. Only one person, Konan, saw this side.

Tonks had glimpsed it, all the way back in the Owlry. Naruto slowly stood up, towering over his kneeling servant. He dropped the filled wine glass on the arm rest, magically staying in place by a _Stick fast_ charm. He looked down at the woman and she quickly looked down, not daring to meet his eyes for fear that her outburst had gotten her in trouble.

A shadow passed her and she sighed in relief, hearing the child's feet walk on the plush black and red carpet away from her. The boy stopped three feet away from her and said. "Follow me."

"Yes, boss."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Tonks residence_

_Wentleford County_

She stopped counting the number of letters she had been sending her first friend after thirty.

**First letter**

_Hey, Naruto. I'm sorry for what I did. I think tattoos are really cool but I promise not to do again. Your friend, Dora._

**Fourteenth letter**

_Hello! It's been two month now. I'm not sure how you're doing it but I don't see you in class anymore. I hope you're doing well. I'm sorry for what I did. Your friend, Dora._

**Twenty sixth letter**

_Naruto, please, I'm sorry. I'm begging you, please forgive me. It will never happen again. I swear. Your friend, Dora._

**Fortieth**

_I'm sorry. I swear on all the stars in the sky that I'm sorry. Forever your friend, Dora._

Tears splotched her scroll as she scribbled another letter to Naruto; her hands were quivered as she folded the letter and gave it to her tired family owl, begging the poor creature to deliver it.

The door creaked open and a brown haired woman peeked inside the brightly lit room, her eyes met her daughters shoulder length, messy black hair. "Nymphadora, honey."

The girl coughed and turned around slightly, looking over her shoulder once to see who had spoken before she returned to composing another letter to Naruto. "Huh?"

"It's time for dinner."

"…In a minute."

Andromeda Tonks exhaled tiredly and entered her room, approached her daughter and placed a firm hand on her shoulders. "Honey, this needs to stop." The girl didn't seem to acknowledge the limb on her shoulder, only frantically writing another letter and folding it again, pressing down on the piece of paper and waiting expectantly for the family owl to return. The older female grumbled and said. "Your friend will reply when he's ready to reply. I'm sure, absolutely sure, he knows it's not your fault." The girl remained silent, nervously pressing down on the folded letter and breathing in and out shakily. The woman placed another hand on her daughters shoulder and helped her onto her feet. "Let's go down for dinner."

"…Ok."

The woman smiled softly and led her drained daughter down the stairs. As they got to the bottom they heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Ted called, allowing the mother and daughter to shuffle off the stairs and into the room directly to the right, the living room. The young Tonks looked at the table with tight lips. They all wondered who would still be out at eight in the night. "Good evening, how can I help you?"

"Good evening, sir," the voice she heard was soft but confident. The woman continued. "My name is Konan and my nephew here really wanted to see his friend, Nymphadora Tonks. By any chance is this the right house? I'm sorry but I'm still trying to get used to the layout of this country."

"Is that so?" the young Tonks frowned slightly and tugged herself away from her mother's grip, walking back to the living room door and peering out. She saw a woman of average height with light purple hair and a white origami rose in it, she was wearing a black and red overcoat, probably to shield herself from the evening cold, and a midnight black dress underneath, purple stockings that went into blood red high heels. The girl saw movement behind her and the woman, Konan, moved aside to show her nephew.

"Naruto?!"

The red haired boy looked around his 'aunt' and beamed at his friend, waving once. He was wearing black combat-grade-but-formal pants that went down just above his calf, held up by black suspenders, and black socks and red sneakers. He had on a formal long sleeved red shirt that was buttoned at his wrists and also buttoned all the way up his torso to his neck. Over his torso was an open red flight jacket. "Dora."

He grunted as the girl shoved her father aside and lunged at him, tackling him in a hug. If he had not been prepared for it or was not physically fit enough to hold up her small weight he would have fallen down for sure.

Naruto kept his hands at his side as the girl hugged him with all her strength, crying silent tears of joy. Naruto winced a little as he looked over her head at her glaring parents; Andromeda had come closer and was glowering at the boy. "So you are the one that has caused my Dora so much heartache."

"I am and I sincerely apologize for that. I was…not in a good place and I didn't want to drag her into my mess." He managed to say through her hair as his friend clung onto him for dear life, pushing her nose into the crook of his neck and inhaling deeply.

Ted crossed his arms. "Is that why you couldn't reply to her letters? Not even one?"

Naruto contemplated lying to them. They knew legilemency but his Occlumency shields were the strongest in the gang, there was no possible way his mind could be breached. But he didn't lie. "I have no excuse for not replying and I'm ashamed of myself for not doing so, it was unbecoming of me."

He soon found himself being dragged inside the house by his happy friend. "Don't just stand there, its freezing cold outside."

Naruto put up some resistance. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

The defensive mothers glared at Naruto, ignoring how Konan tried to shift in front of her ward to block him from view. "Yes, I don't think so too."

"Mom-"

"No, your mother is right. That boy isn't welcome in this house." Ted agreed. "After all the pain you have caused my daughter, you are the very last person I want near her."

Naruto's shoulders sagged but he limply nodded, patting the young Tonks back and gently holding her by her upper forearms, removing her from his body. "I am truly sorry for all the pain I caused, Dora."

"I forgive you, it's ok," Nymphadora turned to her parents, pleading with her eyes. "Mom, dad, please, can't he just stay for dinner?" she sniffed, pulling herself back into her friends arms and rubbing her face in his chest. "_Please_."

They could visibly see the conflict warring on the parents faces as they looked at each other. Their daughter clearly wanted to remain friends with the boy, even after so many weeks of ignoring her, but they couldn't get passed how mature the boy's eyes looked and how secretive he was about why he didn't answer Nymphadora's letters. The mothers glare went down a little and she stepped aside. "Fine." the girl's hair turned back to its usual shade of bubblegum pink and she pulled Naruto into the house.

The two Yakuza members could see how guarded the two parents were of them, still weighing whether or not it was such a good idea to allow their daughter to see Naruto again. Ted helped Konan out of her coat and hung it on the coat rack beside the door. "We're having lamb for dinner." He started, then paused briefly. "I do hope neither of you are vegetarian."

Konan shook her head. "No, we are not vegetarians."

"Wonderful. Please sit." Andromeda said, motioning for the two guests to sit down. The girl was about to push the red head into a seat but Naruto resisted and hesitantly looked at the girls hands tightly wrapped around his right arm, then at Ted. The man quietly waited for the boy to speak.

"I'd like to talk to Dora privately, if you don't mind."

The man's jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed at the boy. He got no intimidated response from the child, unlike what any other child, but he could see the certainty in his eyes. Nymphadora shot a pleading look to her father, their mother was busy in the kitchen bringing the food, and the man drummed his fingers on the table, sitting back in his seat at the head of the table. He stopped and flicked his hands, muttering. "Behave yourselves."

The girl groaned. "_Ugh_ _Dad_! We're _kids_. Relax, ok?"

Naruto nodded appreciatively to the man and followed after the girl as she stomped up the stairs, her left hand holding his right. The boy could hear the mother return from the kitchen and ask after them. When they reached the long corridor after the stairs that only had four doors, two to the left and two to the right, he stopped the girl and turned her around. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her brown eyes. The girl peered up at him through her lashes. Her hands slowly lifted up and held the hands on her shoulders, rubbing her thumbs on the back of his hands.

"I'm sorry." He said.

The girl smiled faintly. "It's fine."

Naruto shook his head. "No, it's not fine. I disappeared and I didn't even have the decency to answer your letters, so yeah…I'm sorry, Dora. I am so, so, _so_ sorry."

The girl silently stared back at him, unconsciously shifting closer to him. Her small smile glowed and she nodded. "Apology accepted."

Naruto exhaled, relieved. "Thank you." She bobbed her head and the boy briefly cracked a grin as she bit her bottom lip in excitement, then he saw her eyes drift down to his arms and his smile dropped. "About those…marks you saw-"

"Don't worry about it," she said, cutting him off. "You don't have to tell to me about them unless you want to."

The mafia bosses lip quirked up in a sharp smirk. "It's best if you don't know." He leaned down and whispered. "For now." The girls smile grew and Naruto mirrored it, straightening up and dropping his hands to his sides, raising an eyebrow when he saw that the girl still hadn't released her hold of his hands. "You haven't told anyone about them, right?" she shook her head and he nodded. There was only a handful of people that knew of his true status in wizarding Britain; the Minister of Magic, the Head of DMLE, Madam Amelia Bones, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and his subordinates. The major ministry heads, the Minister and Bones, had to be notified so that the wealth that was Kazoku manor would not be investigated. A bit of intimidation helped too. "Good. Let's go have dinner."

Dinner was…tense.

Naruto would sometimes look up from his plate of lamb at the two parents, and look back down when he saw that they were looking at him with shaded glares, hidden behind friendly smiles and twinkling eyes. The two parents ate mechanically, cutting pieces of lamb and lifting it into their mouths, ever staring at the poor, partially unnerved boy. Konan didn't seem to mind, daintily cutting through her lamb and eating it bit by bit, her hand would twitch imperceptivity every once in a while when Ted and Andromeda made quick movements across the table to serve more food or pass the salt, ready to grab her wand and shoot stunners at the couple.

For the first ten minute Nymphadora didn't notice, blabbering and chattering into Naruto's ears, speaking with her mouth full and having to rub her lips with her wrist to clean off bits of gravy that dribbled out. Then she threw observed how rigidly Naruto was answering her, more so than usual, and she cast a look at her parents, steadily tapering to a stop, mutely cutting and swallowing her food.

The table was silent.

Ted contemplated throwing the same questions Andromeda's parents had given him when he had come to them for permission to date their daughter before he was inevitably kicked out of the house after revealing he was a half-blood, noting how his precious daughter clung onto every strained word her friend said with large, rapt eyes and an expectant smile, leaning into him every time she spoke and nodding sagely to everything he answered.

His daughter clearly had a crush on this boy, but the boy didn't seem to reciprocate the same amount of affection as the girl.

Matter of fact, the boy was _undoubtedly_ unaware of Nymphadora's attraction.

Andromeda's thought process also followed alongside her husband's; she wanted to ask Naruto if he thought he was 'worthy' of her daughter but also perceived the same thing as the man. When Nymphadora stopped talking and the table was filled with chocking silence for five long minutes, Ted cleared his throat and Konan's left hand twitched in response. Naruto looked at the man and raised an eyebrow. "Dora tells us that you're very smart." He started, recalling the day before, on their daughters return from Hogwarts. She had been a mess of tears, never for once stopped talking about her 'first friend'.

The boy swallowed the lamb in his throat and it dropped into his stomach like a rock, shooting a mildly irritated eye to his friend. The girls shoulders lifted high up in a heavy shrug and her face turned a worrying shade of red. "I only read ahead of class, that's all."

"She also says you're an 'advanced reader'" Andromeda supplied, eyeing the boy carefully and ignoring the girl as she exclaimed in embarrassment. "How advanced, if you don't mind me asking."

"Enough to keep me afloat in school." Was Naruto's simple answer and the two parents looked at each other, sharing their suspicions.

The girl leaped in and provided. "He's very private."

"So it seems." Ted muttered. "Unusual question but humour me. What kind of wand do you use?"

This time Naruto lied, and his friends hands grabbed his knee from under the table in reflex as she caught him. "Rosewood and Veela core, it was my mothers."

Andromeda suddenly felt a surge of defence for her daughter. "You're a veela?" it would explain their daughter's attraction, even after one year in school with the boy.

The hair at the back of her neck smoothed down as Naruto shook his head. "My adopted mother was a veela."

Ted hummed and cut into his lamb. "Where is she now?"

Naruto fought his lips to stop from frowning as he also resumed eating. "Dead."

The man gulped at the toneless voice the boy had used, wincing at how he had not heard the child use the past tense when he briefly referred to his adopted mother. The table returned back to silence, broken, surprisingly, by Naruto as he asked Andromeda.

"You're a Private Magical Archaeologist?"

The woman looked at him with a slight smile, her eyebrows furrowed at his question. "How did you know?"

The red head smiled at her and nodded to his friend. "Dora told me." he then waved his fork in the air, motioning to the few still paintings that hung on the wall and the antic, roughly cut grey marble pensieve bowl on display at the centre of the living room table. "Plus, my foster mother was looking for most of these things to buy when she was still around," he jutted his chin to the pensieve. "She wanted to have that most of all."

The woman became interested. "Why did she want it?"

"It used to belong to a distant relation of hers that lived in Paris. She said it's about five hundred years old and a lost family treasure."

Andromeda was clearly impressed by his eloquence as she said. "You can have it if you want, seeing as it _is_ a family heirloom."

Naruto smiled a bit wider and shook his head negatively. "You worked hard to dig this up from wherever you found it; it would be bad if I took it without payment."

Ted watched as the woman forgot about her food and asked the boy. "How did you know I dug it up? For all you know I bought it from an auction." She certainly still had her portion of the Lestrange wealth.

Naruto's left hand gently motioned to her hands, laid flat on the table beside her plate of food. "Your nails are carefully manicured but I can still see the callouses." He then quickly looked up and muttered with a small bow. "No offense."

The woman trilled out a laugh and nudged her husband with her elbow. "Smart boy."

The man felt left out of the conversation, clearing his throat politely and looking at the red haired boy with a slight frown. "You're oddly observant."

"I was taught to pay attention." Naruto answered with a lopsided smile.

"What do you want to do after Hogwarts, Naruto?" the mother introduced herself again to the conversation, getting increasingly interested in the observant child her daughter had a big crush on. "After you graduate, I mean."

"I still haven't decided yet." He pushed forward his half-finished meal and patted his stomach. "Thank you for the meal, Lady Tonks." Konan followed his gesture, her food was finished.

"Please, it was a pleasure." She looked at the antic walk clock nailed to the wall behind her husband's seat, her eyes shortly widening when she found the time to be past ten in the night. "Why don't you stay for the night? It's not safe to be out at this time."

Nymphadora's eyes enlarged and she swivelled to Naruto. "Yeah, we can have a sleepover."

Ted put his foot down. "No. Separate rooms. Doors _locked_." He could tolerate the boy being around his daughter but sleeping in the same room, even for two eleven year olds, made the man worried. The father breathed out in relief as Konan shook her head.

"We don't want to be a burden. I can apparate us back home."

Andromeda turned to Konan and asked. "Are you sure? We have two spare bedrooms and spare clothes if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm sure. We can organize a sleepover on a later date, but for now Naruto and I have a busy week ahead of us."

Ted shrugged and stood up as Konan and Naruto got to their feet. "If you're sure." The family escorted the guests to the door and watched as the rambunctious girl gave her cool headed friend a tight hug before she released him and waved them goodbye.

Konan grabbed Naruto's shoulder and turned on the spot, disappearing in a small whirlwind of white sheets of paper and a low pop.

Ted unravelled a rolled scroll in his hand Konan had given him on their way to the door, showing his wife that it was an address to the Kazoku manor. The only reason their daughter had been able to send letters to Naruto's house was because she told the owl to find her friend, like she did when they were in Hogwarts. The woman's eyes brightened at the address on the palm sized scroll. She hummed as she read the scroll, giving it to Nymphadora. "Seems like a really nice kid."

Ted looked at her dully and motioned for them to get out of the cold, windy outdoors and into the house. "Meda, your only saying that because he said you manicured your nails '_carefully_'"

She huffed, blowing on her black painted fingernails. "Well…they are."

"When can I visit him, mom, dad?" the girl asked eagerly. Then she gasped and added. "And the sleepover. Can we have it tomorrow? _Please_?"

"We need to send them a letter to ask when they're free first." Ted replied to calm the girl down, placing his hands on her shoulders and urging her to settle down. "We don't want to drop by unexpected when Lady Konan said they'll have a busy week ahead."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_That same night_

_The Leaky Cauldron_

_In front of the entrance of Diagon alley_

There was a short spurt of paper at the stone walled entrance of Diagon alley and Naruto waved away the paper, sending a short look up at the purple haired enchantress. The woman nodded silently and pulled out her wand from the red cloud pin on her right chest, like magic, and covered herself and her master in a swift _Notice me not_ charm before any passer-by, magical or not, could see them. The loyal woman looked around once, her grey eyes darkening with magic as she enhanced the power of her charm with her talent for enchanting even the most stoic creature, turning any one that made to enter the pub away.

The strong winds that were blowing dissuaded people from coming outside, especially at that time of the night. The air was cold, forcing the boy to push his hands further into his warm flight jacket pockets. Even still, there were a few people, noticeably wizards wearing outrageous clothing, that clopped up and down the streets, some heading to Diagon alley and some others swerving towards the tavern.

Naruto patiently waited for her signal before he proceeded into the bar, idly noticing that the woman kept her wand drawn as she followed after him with smooth, calculated steps.

The eleven year old pushed open the doors of the pub and stopped, allowing the heat of the fireplace and lamps to wash over him. The people in the bar turned to him and stared, murmuring questions as to why a child would be out at this late in the night, with a woman no less. Naruto ignored them and proceeded to the counter.

The hunchbacked bar tender beamed toothily at the red head, his expression wavering as Konan levelled him with a careful look, her seven inch siren hair core and Origami birch tree wand in plain view at her side, pointed down. Naruto rolled his eyes once and turned an annoyed eye to the silent patrons of the bar, unabashedly staring at the two new people. He discarded them from his mind and spoke to the bar tender in a low voice.

"Is Dumbledore here?"

The man looked up to the ceiling, indicating the rooms upstairs, and nodded. "Top floor, room 20."

The boy nodded and thanked him. The tension in the pub was rising, with wizards and witches slowly retrieving their wands and placing them on their tables. The boy frowned at the electricity in the air and glared over his shoulder at Konan. The woman submissively lowered her eyes to the ground and hid her wand back into her origami rose hairclip. Naruto straightened his shirt, running his hands down his pants in a subtle show that he too didn't have his wand out, and the tension seemed to go down; the wizards hid their wands but kept a wary eye on the two. He didn't have time to engage in a pointless bar fight. The headmaster of Hogwarts had sent him a letter to see him in the Leaky Cauldron merely a day after the magical school went on break, claiming that it was of great importance. He had to be careful to fix his image if they ever encountered him again. The mafia boss stomped up the stair, ignoring his subordinate's hasty, whispered apologies, pleading for his forgiveness as she followed him with her head lowered and her hands clasped together.

They reached the top floor and went up to the door. Naruto looked at his apologetic follower, a loyal asset that he would preferably not do without, but for now he needed a private word with the headmaster, the letter seemed personal and frantic. The woman seemed to hesitate, taking half a step forward as Naruto placed his palm on the door to push it open but the boy hissed quickly with his eyes narrowed into thin slits, making sure his eyes remained purple.

"Stay." He ordered under his breathe, like he was speaking to a whimpering puppy that longed to stay in her masters presence. Konan was a half-siren, half human; part of her was a creature that was born to destroy human lives. Naruto knew what it felt like to indulge the primal part of his body, he was part Kitsune. He knew that the fact he was genetically capable of throwing off her unconscious hypnotism, eerily similar to veela magic, drew the woman closer to him, enforced her loyalty to him and him alone, even while Kaguya was still the head of the Yakuza, but her insistence to serve as his shield only irked him. His frown deepened and he sharply pointed behind to the side of the door. "Guard the door."

Konan, the stoic Angel of Ame, struggled not to frown. Bowing once to her master in obedience and sliding to the door, her body twitched as it closed with a soft click. This time she withdrew her wand and crossed her arms under her chest, keeping a vigilant eye on the well-lit top floor. Naruto turned around and looked at the tall headmaster, standing with his back to him and looking out of the window. The boy's eyes strayed around the room and found that the only furniture there was a table sitting smack dab in the centre of the room, between the two powerful wizards.

"I suspect you know I lied about Harry Potter." The man began, still looking out into the windy night at the street before the pub. Lights from houses twinkled in the night, like defiant fireflies that resisted the wind, refusing to go out. He heard the boy scoff and lean against the door with his hands in his pants pockets.

"I'm very good at detecting lies." Naruto answered with a downward curl of his lips. Dumbledore also lied about why Naruto had been taken from the Sarutobi's house by Kaguya. It wasn't a Kitsune thing, or a Namikaze thing. It was a trick he learnt on his own. "Did you also lie about the letter? My grandfather's intentions?" he controlled his voice, keeping it low and as emotionless as possible; Naruto was very defensive of the late head of House Sarutobi, and his late uncle and aunt. His sense of smell was exceptional and the letter indeed smelt of his grandfather's distinct tobacco and cherry scent, the handwriting too was identical but the boy wouldn't be surprised if the headmaster had somehow faked them.

"Hiruzen wanted you to know when you were older-" the blue eyed man said, turning around with a swish of his robe but stopped when Naruto took an intimidating step towards him.

"Cut the crap." Naruto might have been powerful for his age and his mastery over his wands, both of which were in a storage charm in his back pocket, was remarkably high but he didn't know how he would fare against a man of Dumbledore's stature. It _might_ hurt to find out but if that's what it took to get answers…

"Naruto-" the man said, raising his hands for the boy to calm down.

Naruto did not look like it, with his dead purple eyes, his small, childish frown and his paper pale face, but he was reaching the end of his patience. "Start talking. Why did my grandfather want me here?"

Dumbledore was not the least bit afraid but was far from stupid; the boy before him had killed a goddess, two Uchiha that were dangerously close to the peak of magic, an ageless plant potion master and an Otsutsuki that was more or less second to Kaguya in power rank, all in the same night. Naruto controlled the loyalty of an underground organization that boasted of thousands of members and followers, a vast wealth of four great houses _and_ the gang wealth and a deep well of resource he was sure even Naruto was not fully aware of. The boy was the definition of dangerous; if he somehow managed to incapacitate the child, a miracle given the boys accomplishments, then the half siren enchantress outside the room would alert the rest in Britain, who would in turn alert the ones in Japan, before she would charge into the room to hold him off. The Japanese wizards that were members of the infamous gang would appear in at least ten minutes, storming the pub in droves, and at that point Albus would already be a dead man. There would be nowhere he could hide, except in Hogwarts, but who knows if the Yakuza could find a way to breach the castles defences.

He knew, from the very beginning of the child's schooling, that he had to tread carefully around him; Naruto had no problem killing and the Yakuza would have no problem killing him if they discovered he touched a single hair on their leaders head.

He started talking, choosing to hold back his urge to slap the child for his tongue. "Your mother truly schooled here with James Potter and your father truly was Lily Potter's penpal."

"Get to the point."

"Kushina was the last heiress to House Uzumaki, a direct descendent of the Kyuubi. The Nine Tailed Fox gave your birth mother a special silver coin after he went out to battle your adopted mother." He saw the bewilderment in Naruto's eyes and he said. "The Kyuubi used a cursed object called the _Mist of the Soul_ that projects a fragment of the soul to the receiver in physical form. He gave her the Silver Coin, an Uzumaki family treasure he and only he had possession of, which he sealed all eight of his siblings inside, against the popular notion that the other tailed beasts were sent to the underworld. He told her that there were few people he trusted with it."

Naruto pushed aside the fact that the eight beasts weren't in the underworld but rather in a coin, focusing on why the Kyuubi gave a child the coin that, when left unguarded, could destroy the world as we know it, as well as time _and_ reality. "Trusted her? That doesn't make any sense. There were people that have to be older, secure places-"

"Kushina was his daughter." The man said, bring Naruto to a screeching halt. "Her mother had died at child birth, so the only person he had that was closer to his heart than his own House was his daughter."

"How do you know all this?"

"Hiruzen was a tight lipped man but he confided in me when it became too much to bear."

Naruto was struck by this revelation, making him take a shaky step back. "What of the coin?" the thought of an item that contained eight destructive creatures threw him out of his daze.

Dumbledore shrugged weakly. "Lost."

Naruto's eyes turned red and he gnashed his teeth. "_What?_"

"Your parents were with James and Lily when Voldemort attacked their home six years ago." Naruto's glared hatefully at the old wizard and the man nodded his head. "I told you, they were great friends."

"So? Haven't you people searched through the house?" they couldn't possibly think he would do a better job at finding the coin _six years_ after it had disappeared.

"We have but we were only able to recover Minato's body, Kushina's is missing." James and Lily's bodies were also found in the house. Naruto was holding down his exclamation with all his might. "We, that is, The Order, have been searching for years. We believe that the silver coin might be a sort of magical item that can only be found by an Uzumaki."

Naruto closed his eyes and rubbed the sides of his head, breathing out. "Old man Sarutobi wanted me to find the silver coin." He summarised. If what the old man was saying was true then his parents were very much alive when he was five years old but the only life he had known was the one with the Sarutobi's. He shook his head to get the thoughts out, forcing his mind to tackle the bigger crisis at hand.

The Order had not contacted Kaguya, who would enlist Naruto for help in looking for his family's prized possession, because they feared that, when she found the coin, she would use it to enslave the planet. The woman had killed the Kyuubi, for reasons no one knew, who was to say that she wouldn't want total world domination?

There were few leads he could follow to find the dangerous magical item that housed eight destructive creatures that, when released, were sure to go back and begin destroying the world like they had done thousands of years ago. He could check the Potter's home but doubted there would be anything there to help, seeing as he was sure a clean sweep of the place had already been performed, although he would still check the place out. He could check in Hogwarts; the castle was full of secret rooms and even more secret secrets, Kushina might have escaped there to hide the coin. And finally there was the young boy Dumbledore had initially tried to trick Naruto into befriending.

Harry Potter.

The boy looked to the silent headmaster and asked. "What of the boy? Where is Harry Potter?" the Order must have been smart enough to scan the young Potter for even the smallest trace of the coin on the very day they found him. And he was right; after they had found Harry alone and crying in the Potter residence they did not find the coin on or in him. It was Naruto's turn to look for clues on the location of the coin and now that he found one, albeit an old lead that the Order had forgotten about, he could have free reign to personally search the boy.

Dumbledore blanched and supplied. "About that…"

The next words that came out of Dumbledore's mouth were _not_ the words that he wanted to hear.

**Authors note**

**That's it for this chapter.**

**I've got a new story out and no, it's not a crossover. It's a full on 'Naruto' story and it is quite possibly the darkest I have ever written (so far). It's called ****The Beast Came from The Fire Pit**** and it's a revenge fic. I really tapped into…something…when I wrote that first chapter, and that's not where the darkness ends. I don't want to give spoilers, but for those that are interested in reading then prepare yourselves for blood, gore, swearing, insanity and **_**possibly**_** being triggered. Read it and lemme know if anyone's interested in another chapter and I will post it as soon as possible. I've already gotten some good reception for it, so check it out!**

**But for now, how was **_**this**_** chapter or **_**this**_** story?**

**Leave your thoughts in a review, if you please. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello hello guys and gals, and thank you all for your amazing reviews!**

**Shout out to xirons20, TheForgottenSuns75, anoyak111, lord 7th, avidnarutofan, Lt Juan Rico (thanks, I really appreciate it) and Darck Master. You guys are all spectacular :)**

**Near the end of the dinner it was only Andromeda that became more open minded concerning Naruto, mainly cuz he's observant. Ted isn't too keen on going easy on Naruto.**

**I don't know…I'm just feeling a bit…dull – and a bit tired - today. I haven't slept well in about two days now cuz I'm always being called to go somewhere **_**and**_** I have to worry about what the **_**duck**_** I'm going to do about my last year. Nothing food and a long, **_**long**_** rest cant fix, of course, so it should be fine.**

**I'm changing the name of the story from ****Nine in the Dark: The Lost Silver Coin**** to just ****Nine in the Dark****. My reason is that I intended to make this a sort of series but ended up deciding not to.**

**I made a slight mistake; Harry is six, not five. I did my research and found out that Tonks was in her seventh year in Hogwarts while Naruto was in his first, making the age difference six. That isn't really important but I'm somewhat of a stickler for detail. Somewhat.**

**Enjoy.**

CHAPTER 6

_Tailed beasts were believed to be one of the first magical creations of the deities named Amaterasu and Tsukoyomi. Separated from a terrible monster called the Ten Tails and thrown to different regions of the country, they were creatures of unimaginable magical power._

_There was no explanation whatsoever in any ancient text as to why they went berserk; the second oldest, Gyuki, the eight tailed Ox-octopus, became addicted to the taste of human and nature magical cores. He convinced his siblings on the sweetness and they went on a rampage on the earth. The Nine tails grew a conscience as he came upon an island of men and women with red hair, giving them his blessing and betraying his brothers and sisters in order to protect the people he had found, indirectly saving the whole world. Again, there was no explanation for why Kurama, the nine tails, changed._

_Tailed beasts can never die._

_Tailed beasts can never be banished to the underworld._

_They could only be sealed into an item of immense power, enough to match the wavelengths of the nine different beasts._

_Kurama brought out a silver coin he had picked up in Demon territory during a particularly savage rampage. With nine of his tails securely wrapped around the beasts, he sealed them into the coin held in his hands._

_There was no record of the fight._

_The rumoured story of the fight was purposely changed so that the people thought the eight beasts were sent to the underworld. This was to prevent people from coming after the magical item. A few individuals knew of the truth._

_The Kyuubi became the guardian of the House Uzumaki, protecting them from harm and danger and watching as civilization grew within and outside the clan._

_Magical Japan was created, a conglomeration of the dozens of magical territories, and it all centred in Konoha, headed by the very first Minister of Magic, Kokoma Doujoushin. Hundreds of years later, darkness grew within the country and residing in the darkness were people of greed and envy, led by a veela named Kaguya, the globally proclaimed 'Goddess of Magic' and supported by hundreds of wizards of high calibre, like Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Obito, Otsutsuki Toneri, Shimura Danzo and Zetsu._

_Kurama was goaded out of Uzushio territory on the threat that if he did not come out, the Yakuza, a powerful, criminal organization, would invade._

_He handed his most prized possession, the silver coin, to his daughter and entrusted her to protect it with her life; if the coin entered the wrong hands then it would be the end of the world, for Kyuubi might not be lucky, or _alive_, to seal them back again. It was Kushina's sole duty to make sure the coin was always in her possession._

_Tailed beasts could be hypnotized._

_Tailed beasts could lose their power._

_The latter of which would put them in a state of permanent stasis, where they would be intangible, invisible and unresponsive._

_Kaguya drained the nine tails of his chakra with her _Third Eye_ and entered Uzushio for the coin, her intentions were not good. Kushina had been secretly smuggled out of the Uzumaki city to Britain, where she would school and grow in power, so much so that even Kaguya was hesitant to meet her in battle._

_On the day Minato and Kushina were with the Potters in their house, Voldemort attacked._

_Harry Potter was orphaned._

_James Potter was buried._

_Lily Evan Potter was buried._

_Minato Namikaze was buried._

…_But…Kushina Uzumaki….was nowhere to be found._

Nothing was mentioned about their son, Naruto.

It still didn't make sense.

Naruto stared blankly out of the top window of the Knight bus, his eyes reflected back to him but he pushed past them to look at the night sky, empty of stars and devoid of the moon, as pitch black as his heart at that moment.

The words of the tome Dumbledore had presented to him in the Leaky Cauldron spun in his head, lashing about without mercy; he swore to the man that if he did not hand over the rest of his grandfather's things he would _rain __**fire and brimstone**_ on his head. At least now he knew that it was that old wizard that had stolen his grandfather's scrolls, and also that the missing Uzumaki treasure was the Silver Coin. He was expecting the rest the following day, meanwhile he sat in the bus, musing on the theories in his head.

The Namikaze was a Yakuza house, but even that couldn't be reason enough for Kaguya to kidnap him from his home when he was five and kill his surrogate family. She had done so during the height of Voldemort's campaign in the rest of the world. Kushina was not an Auror in Britain but she was a Curse Breaker, meaning she was being run ragged to remove curses placed on families and properties by Death Eaters. Kaguya would believe that when word of her child being in her possession reached the Uzumaki's ears then the woman would come running back.

It would make sense that Kushina was too distressed about her child and too tired from work to concentrate on her surroundings, allowing Voldemort to kill her when she was at her weakest. It still didn't explain why her body was never found.

He needed to find the coin because the consequence of it coming undone would tear apart the world; he didn't desire power because he already had it, but there were people that desired power and would even destroy the world to get it.

It wasn't a hero's ambition; it was to preserve the lives of those he was accountable for, like every member of his gang…

And now the Tonks.

How did Kaguya even know an Uzumaki resided in the quiet Sarutobi property? He was only allowed out of the property in a disguise and was always escorted y either his uncle or aunt. Asuma had quit the Yakuza years before Naruto had arrived in the house, and the Yakuza had somewhat freed him after he had performed the 'Impossible Task', so it couldn't be his uncle. His aunt Akuma had not contacted the gang in any way, even cutting ties with her twin brother when he had joined. So needless to say, Akuma hated the Yakuza and wanted nothing to do with them; he had checked the gangs archives and nothing about Akuma, or even _Asuma_, being interrogated was mentioned. Old man Sarutobi had been in a wheelchair since his fifties from a freak accident, and so he spent most of his days within the premises, reading and playing with Naruto.

Kaguya had no idea Naruto even _existed_ until a _day_ before the raid.

The only way she would have known was for someone close to Kushina or Minato, or James and Lily, to leak information to the elder veela.

Who leaked the information to Kaguya?

Naruto grunted with a small frown and balanced his right elbow on his knee, perching his head on his right fist and glaring out into the night; his role as bait would therefore be useless, seeing as the person with the silver coin was either dead or missing, but Kaguya kept the child around, training him with all she knew so that he could use his status as an Uzumaki could somehow find a way to track and retrieve the coin. She didn't count on the fact that Kitsune were not dogs that could be trained and conditioned to be loyal.

Kaguya never loved him, no matter how many times she said it. He was to be her little puppet, her loyal pet that would fetch her the coin that would certainly grant her infinite power.

She didn't count on him murdering her with her own wand.

He was the grandson of Kyuubi and he had killed his adopted mother, who held all of the Kyuubi's absorbed power; he shouldn't have been worried about what would happen if the eight beasts were unsealed from the coin because the nine tails was much stronger than all of the other beasts combined, and the boy had beaten the person with the power of a goddess _**and**_ the nine tails. Fear was out of the question too; with all the people he had killed and all the failed assassination attempts on his head, he knew no fear, only vigilance and caution. In the end he was worried; at the wrong hands the eight beasts could overpower him and he would not have the strength to stand against it.

Besides, the silver coin was an Uzumaki family heirloom; he only wanted to have it back.

Prevention is always and will _always_ be better than cure.

The time was 11:43PM and he was on his way to his biggest lead on where the silver coin, and hopefully his mother, were, but there was only one _small_ problem.

Harry Potter was missing.

And he was the only suspect in the kidnapping.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Privet drive_

The mafia boss huffed as he hopped off the bus, tossing a few coins to the conductor and lifting his shoulders high to shade his neck from the unforgiving winds and the chill of the night.

The Knight bus clanked off and disappeared as Konan gingerly alighted, drawing eyes on her smooth figure, hidden under the cloak she wore.

Two dark figures stood underneath the lamp before him and Naruto nodded to them. They marched forward and bowed deeply to him.

"Lord Leader." Sasori and Kakuzu greeted and the boy regarded them once, then he turned his head towards his destination; the Dursley residence.

"Kakuzu, start looking for any trace magic in the environment in the past twenty four hours." The boss ordered and Kakuzu bowed again, removing his hands from his pockets to retrieve five circular stones etched with single runes, one for each element. The man spun around and trooped forward to the Dursley residence, on the third step he threw the runes and they shifted into humanoid black threads that writhed and shuffled after their master, on his sixth step thy all leaped away from Kakuzu to look for trace magic and on Kakuzu's ten step he was gone. Naruto was not looking at him, but rather at the home of the boy who lived.

"Sasori, Konan, you follow me." Naruto said as he walked to the house. The two obediently moved behind him, with their hands behind their backs and their wands at the ready.

They stopped at the front door and Naruto knocked three times, patiently waiting for the door to be answered, even if it was already midnight.

The master bedroom light turned on two minutes later and heavy footfalls lumbered down the stairs. The porch light above the trio flicked on and Naruto's lips curled up into a friendly smile, making sure to dilate his eyes so as to make him look 'cute' and flush his cheeks. The door opened and Vernon, who had a hand behind his back, no doubt hiding a club in his fist, glared at the three midnight visitors.

He obviously knew what to look for to detect a wizard; his eyes enlarged and he cursed, rearing back to slam the door shut but Naruto's right leg bolted forward and kept the door open, surprising the man that a boy of his age could have such a sturdy foot.

"I told you freaks to stay away from my house!" the man snarled, barely keeping his voice down so as to not wake up the neighbours. Petunia stood at the back of her husband with alert eyes, sharing her husband's terror and Naruto could just barely see a large mass hid behind the stick thin woman, suspecting that it was Dudley.

Naruto tutted, his cheeks flushing deeper and shaking his head a little. "Well that's not nice. We're just here to have a nice chat, aren't we guys?" Sasori's wooden face, held in a serene smile, remained unmoving but his brown eyes glowed as he nodded with the half siren. "Can we come in?"

"No-"

"Thank you." Naruto interrupted as he removed his hands from his pockets and shoved the door open, easily overpowering the whale of a man in one swift movement, pushing the shocked man into the living room and following after him. The boss walked in and looked over his shoulders, Konan and Sasori nodded and walked around the family, Sasori led as dozens of blue strings escaped his wand and 'licked' the ground, looking for trace magic in the house. Konan fluidly moved around the living room, her wand billowing out thin mist in search of any trace magic. _Hours_ after the kidnapping and there had still been no investigation on the matter, something the young boy found very strange. The red head allowed his subordinates to work and he beamed at the shivering family. "How about we take a seat?"

The family had not been sleeping well, expecting the arrival of the magical authorities to investigate the kidnapping at any moment, but the fat man would rather allow a prostitute to shit in his mouth _and_ swallow it than allow wizards dictate to him. Vernon found his tongue and barked. "Y-you can't just come into my house and make-"

Naruto's eyebrows twitched, maintaining his grin. His eyes turned dark and constricted, his voice became demonically deep. "**Sit**.** Down**."

Vernon stumbled back and fell into a fluffy couch that had been conjured behind him. Petunia and Dudley too fell back but gaped as they somehow fell into the same chair as the patriarch of the family. Naruto, though, remained standing.

His question was short and simple, choked with an unpronounced threat if he did not hear the right answer. "Where is he?"

At this point, the Dursley family were rightly frightened. The man of the house shivered as he answered. "W-w-w-we d-don't kn-know."

Naruto hummed disapprovingly and shook his head. "You see, I believe you," they all sighed in relief. "But I think _you_ can guess why he was taken." He said, levelling his eyes at Lily Evans sister, Petunia. The thin woman had grown up with her sister for the most part and Kushina often slept over at their house during the summer. Petunia eavesdropped on all of their secret, magic related conversations. The woman bobbed her head obediently and Naruto smirked, satisfied that she was not trying to deny it. "Can you tell me who you suspect would really want that coin?"

The woman, for the briefest of seconds, looked like she didn't want to answer the boys question, but her building courage was shattered when Naruto's smile dropped and he glared at her. "There was a man!" Naruto waited for her to continue. "He used to come around and watch Harry when he was pulling out the weeds in the garden or even taking out the trash."

Naruto was almost tempted to ask why a five year old boy would be made to do those chores but refocused his mind. "How many times and since when?"

"About eight, maybe nine, months ago, I think. I only saw him four times but it could be more. We didn't see him again." It narrowed down Naruto's list of people to the male professors of Hogwarts, pinpointing that the stalking had started a month or so before the semester resumed and ended as school began, only for the boy to resurface again as school had ended but this time he had taken the boy who lived to find the fabled and much sought after silver coin. It could be because Naruto had resumed that year as a first year, meaning he felt threatened that one of the Uzumaki would find the coin before him. Or it could be that he had kidnapped Harry Potter in order to either lure Naruto to him, so as to replace Harry as the tracker of the powerful coin, or because he genuinely believed that Harry had the coin but was too scared to act on his belief months ago.

This time Naruto couldn't force down the temptation to ask. "Was he ever reported?"

Vernon snarled. "We thought he was some sort of molester that was still trying to work up the courage to kidnap that freak, why would we report him?" he chortled and said. "_The freaks gone now_."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed as he listened. He then smiled widely with his eyes closed and chuckled along with the man before he flicked his hand at Vernon; Sasori swished behind him and cracked his fist down on the top of the fat man's head, knocking him out in one of the most painful way possible. Petunia hugged her boy and shuffled away from the smiling Puppet master. "That is an investigation for another day, but for now I need you to describe the man to me." the woman was trembling and she shrieked as Sasori lifted his right hand to give her a back hand across her face, a threatening thing coming from a man that was smiling peacefully. "I've lost my patience, woman. Tell m_**e now**_." The woman screamed and begged, her eyes bugging out more and more as blood dribbled down her husband's face as the top of his head bled. She gave a description, a vivid description, and Naruto's snarl dropped into a tiny frown as she fully described his former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, the fraudster named Corpus Maximillion.

Naruto's head lowered in thought.

That man could have gotten wind of the story about the eight beasts, the true story, and was looking for the coin to sell in the black market. This left him with the option of simply waiting until the coin came up in the market so that he could buy it at any price, kill the man and take back his money, or search for the man and find out who had told him the true story of the coin, for the only people that knew the real story were dead, in the Order of the Phoenix, in the upper echelons of the Yakuza or was a former high ranking Death Eater. He ruled out the Yakuza; they were all bound by loyalty to him, something that could not be betrayed; hell, they had even forgotten about the coin, if not they would have certainly told him about it. This was something he always told himself so as not to worry about a revolt; it was Naruto's way of embracing the naivety of childhood so as to focus his mind on other things. The dead too were logically ruled out. That left the Order and the Death Eaters. Then there was the matter of using a Polyjuice potion to look like him. Maximillion must have been hoping to get him in trouble with the authorities, probably out of spite for what he did in his DADA class. Though he didn't think of the abysmally low level of security around the boy who lived; a shaky _Honest Intention Ring_ around the house and a _squib_ that lived next door. The ring was to prevent those that held dishonest intentions for the occupants of the ring from entering, and even without all the gaping loopholes the ring allowed, it still seemed like they had not even put effort into it.

And then there was the squib. What the _**hell**_ did they expect her to do when something bad happens? Write a letter to Dumbledore?

Did the Order not take the safety of the Boy Who Lived seriously? Back home in Japan, he had a cousin, his only cousin, Karin, who was not a member of his gang and was not affiliated with the gang in any way. In order to protect her from those that felt like they could use her to get to him he had ten highly trained wizards keep a careful eye on her from the shadows, her apartment room had a level eight barrier around it and the young girl had been drilled on what to do when danger struck; she was made to memorize two of the nearest safe houses in Oto. Naruto didn't particularly care for her but his personal code prevented him from having a bystander, in this case Karin, used as bait to get to him, not that he had any problem killing innocent people; he did that plenty. Right then, Naruto felt like Maximillion was using Harry Potter to lure him in.

"Boss, I've got something." Sasori called and a four foot tall, four armed creature with a spiders head and human legs ambled out from the room under the stairs, its jaw rattled as it reported to Sasori, waving a few sheets of paper in one of its hands to show what it had discovered. The puppet nervously shuffled to the leader of the Yakuza and bowed, presenting the paper to Naruto. Naruto looked down at the paper, his eyes became grim when he saw that they were rough, childish drawings of the tailed beasts, specifically numbers one to six, the seven and eight tails were nowhere to be seen. He flipped through the drawings and stopped at the last drawing.

A gleaming circle with a dark halo around it, with eight straight lines carved onto the surface and all the lines were boxed in by a rectangle with a slash passing over the lines, symbolizing the bar of a cage.

It was the coin.

"He has the coin." Naruto whispered, his eyes scanning the drawing and confirming that it was indeed a _Fuinjutsu_ for _Cage_/_Imprison_. He looked up at Sasori. "But…Harry has been here for six _years_…"

The puppet masters eyebrows shot up and he finished. "How come they've never known he had the coin?" the puppet rumbled to the petrified mother and son and shot two needles into their necks, knocking them out.

"I think whoever wants that coin has been waiting for me to get it for them." Naruto hummed. This intensified Naruto's suspicion of the Order and the Death Eaters. Another person that may or may not be affiliated with either party, Maximillion, had taken the initiative to steal the boy away and try to retrieve the coin he knew Harry had. "It can only mean that Harry has the coin…but at the same time he doesn't."

Konan walked to the pair from the room under the stairs, her nose wrinkled with irritation once before her expression smoothed over. "I don't understand, boss."

"I think Harry has an _Undetectable Blood lock seal_ somewhere on his body that only a relative of my parents can unlock."

Sasori's eyes narrowed. "You."

"Exactly." His mind was trying to work out why Maximillion kidnapped the boy. If the Death Eaters or Order had sent him then he should know very well that any attempt at breaking the seal would not succeed, and that was only if they trusted Kushina to seal away the coin. He should wait for Naruto to unseal the coin before he would attack. This created doubt that the fraudster was in any way affiliated with the two groups. Another theory was that Kushina was still alive and the coin was with her, but that should have been the obvious option given that her body and the coin had disappeared after Voldemort's attack. Then why was Harry kidnapped if Kushina was the clearly the one with the dangerous item?

It didn't make any sense.

"We need to find Harry." Naruto said abruptly, breaking the long silence. There was only one way to break a blood lock seal and that was the normal way, with the blood of the seal master or any relative of the seal master. Even if his single lead to the artefact had divided into two - Harry or Kushina – he still needed to make sure harry did not have the coin. And that was the current problem.

Until.

"Lord Leader." Naruto turned around to the front door as Kakuzu slammed it open. "I've found signs of apparition."

"Where?"

"The front porch." The man said, pointing to where he and the other two had formerly been on a few minutes ago. The boy didn't beat himself up over not detecting the trace magic seeing as trace magic could only be found when it was painstakingly searched for. It waned over time until it became a whisper in the wind, but it was always there, waiting for those looking to find it.

Naruto walked curtly to the door and Kakuzu stepped back, pointing at the exact spot his clone used to be. The red head walked out of the house and drew his Kitsune core wand, saying as he brought it up to his lips. _"Appare Vestigium."_

He blew out a gust of golden glitter out of the end of the wand onto the place the trace magic had been found and saw two solid footprints standing before the house. Naruto bent down to the footprints and released his wand. The wand dropped down and speared into the footprint, more golden glitter spun around the footprint to project a dazzling image of Naruto beaming down at the person who had answered the door. The shimmering Naruto projection moved slowly, his face giving a twisted smirk and his eyes glowing with glee as he nodded, placing a firm hand on thin air. The person he was talking to was vague and undefined, meaning the child was not emitting any king of magic, which was very strange, even for a minor that was still yet to practise intentional magic.

Naruto, standing back up and frowning at what he was seeing, as his hands moved together and flipped through two hand seals. _"Revelio."_

The Kitsune core wand rattled in its place and began softly puffing out more and more golden glitter from its back end, covering the person the mirage was talking to. Naruto's eyes narrowed, not that it wasn't Harry Potter, but at the state the boy was in; wearing an oversized shirt, sporting signs of having wounds on his body, unkept toenails, unhealthily thin, worryingly pale and was trying - and failing - not to shiver in fear. From what, he didn't know. He didn't flinch as the mirage wizard turned on the spot and evaporated into nothing, the glitter showered down on the real red head harmlessly. Naruto picked up his wand.

He looked up at the pair on the conjured couch and the couch popped out of existence, making them all land in a huff on their behinds, waking them up as the needles in their necks popped out of sight. "I'll be back in a bit." He jabbed his wand down at the place the fake Naruto formerly stood and ordered. "Grab on."

Kakuzu grabbed his masters shoulder and Sasori and Konan rushed to him as well, Konan grabbed onto the other shoulder and Sasori gripped the hand Konan offered him. The red head turned on the spot and all three wizards disappeared in a muffled pop and a suppressed burst of dark red fire, leaving behind the family of three, two of whom were still conscious and wondering what sort of torture they would be put through when the _demon_ child returned.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

_Knockturn Alley_

The night workers of the magical world that still rushed about Diagon alley stumbled back in surprise as the air before the entrance of Knockturn alley fizzled and spat once with soft red sparks before three people warped out of the centre of the spark. Naruto ignored them and blew out gold glitter from his wand, running after the footprints.

It led up to a shop at the very centre of the alley, wedged between two shops of equal size. Naruto squinted his eyes as he peered through the grimy window and saw that inside were dusty white mannequins, most of which were female, and they were not clothed. The interior of the store looked to be as large as the living room of the Tonks, with no tables or counter in sight but rather a bead curtain covering a doorway opposite the window Naruto was staring through.

The place looked like a haunted house.

"Sasori," Naruto called, still carefully using his eyes to scan the shop through the window. The puppet master answered and Naruto continued. "Do you have a mental image of Maximillion?" the other red head answered affirmatively. "Make sure the ends of this alley are covered. I don't want him fleeing." The man wasted no time summoning puppets and spreading them out. Naruto stood back and tapped the window with the white tip of his coal black Kitsune core wand, checking to see if there were any jinxes anywhere inside the abandoned clothes store. "Konan, Kakuzu, I want you to watch the entrance and exit." The two saluted and Konan disappeared in a swirl of paper, appearing on the roof of the shop and dropping down to the back, landing smoothly with a momentary levitation charm. Kakuzu stood guard at the front door and watched as his boss pushed open the door. Naruto's fingers twitched as he heard the bell clank above him.

He watched the mannequins, pointing his wand at them as he began trooping forward, manoeuvring his way through them until he got to the back.

The purple eyed boy pushed aside the beads and stopped his march forward at the sight before him; the backroom was also empty, though it was possibly as large as a Roman coliseum. The walls were painted gold and red and the floor was made out of clean, polished white marble with the ceiling being too high to be seen. The boy mentally applauded whoever cast the _Expansion charm_ for the amount of detail he put into the interior design, rather not believing that a fraud could pull it off.

He heard a whimper and his eyes swivelled to the centre of the backroom.

Harry Potter, the boy he had been seeking for the past few hours, was lying on his side, sporting a black right eye and, with the worrying way he was cradling his left arm, a broken wrist. There was splotches of blood on his oversized shirt and his bare feet had three red welts crossing over the other.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and his lips wiggled into a small frown. _'Maximillion tortured a child?'_

The boy had obviously been left there as bait and Naruto would be a fool if he fell for it.

He made sure he was not more than five feet inside the backroom before he fell onto his left knee and placed his left hand on the ground to steady him as he pointed his wand at the boy, whispering. _"Locomotor Harry Potter."_

An invisible surface spread out under the weeping child and gently lifted him up, making sure not to aggravate his wounds. The boys eyes opened and he shrank back when he saw that it was the boy that had taken him from the Dursley's, though… this one…

A warm smile bloomed onto Naruto's face and his eyes curved up, to ease the boy's nerves. Maximillion possibly tortured Harry for information while still under disguise as him but from the way the boy looked at him defensively, not fearfully, it felt like the Polyjuice had worn off and Maximillion had no more left.

Naruto coaxed the boy closer and closer, nodding his head slightly until the boy who lived was safely under Naruto. Harry stared up at the red head with wide, raptured eyes, his mouth agape with wonder at what he had done and his cheeks flushing at the disarming smile the nameless boy gave him, further reducing his defences into nothing.

"I'm here to help you, Harry," Naruto started, speaking in a low voice so as not to startle the staring six year old child. The eternally white tip of Naruto's black wand glowed slowly and the red head pointed it down at Harry's broken wrist, motioning for the boy to release it into his hand. "Try and relax ok?" Harry pursed his lips and bobbed his head quickly in compliance, his cheeks darkened with embarrassment when the wizard above him gave him a mute, laughing smile. "Close your eyes." The boy did so without a thought, feeling Naruto's right hand gently hold his left hand in his palm, pressing the tip of his wand into the back of his hand and muttering. _"Brackium Emendo."_ A deep feeling rushed down the wand and into the boys hand, enveloping it. Harry instinctively flexed his hand and his eyes shot open when he saw that it didn't sting anymore. Naruto's smile lessened and he patted Harry's head. "Let's get you out of here. We can fix your other wounds when we get ou-"

A mannequin groaned and creaked and dove at Naruto.

It was too close for Naruto to turn around and blast to pieces, so he did the next best thing; he lunged forward, scooping up the child underneath him, and rolled into the room. This gave him enough space to drop the boy, spin around and shoot a very reliable charm. _"Bombarda."_

The mannequin exploded into many pieces and Naruto then pointed his wand to where he felt a slight thrum of life, cursing as his precious Kitsune core wand was ripped out of his hand.

"_Expelliarmus."_

Corpus Maximillion deftly caught the wand in his hand and smirked proudly at the surprised look on Naruto's face. "What? Didn't think someone would ever disarm you? Get over yourself, brat." He tossed the wand over his shoulder and proceeded to walk towards the two boys with calculated steps. Naruto shook his head and made sure Harry didn't sit up, pressing his left hand down over the boy's eyes. The child might go into hysteria at being confronted by the person that had tortured him for most part of the day. "There's a big market for that coin, Naruto, as I'm sure your aware of, so let's not waste any more time talking and get to the point." He pointed his wand at Naruto and his smirk crawled higher up his face, his sky blue eyes alight with eagerness and glee. "Unseal the coin and hand it to me or else you will be subjected to a special brand of torture."

Naruto's lips tightened and he looked down at the trembling boy, then up at the former teacher. Maximillion was standing at the safe distance of fifteen feet away, a long way away from Naruto's 'lunging' range, and his wand, trained at his heart, looked like any spell used would definitely hurt as it hit home. His eyes flicked to the man's side and saw the white tip of his wand shining softly in expectation.

Waiting…

Naruto, still crouched over the tortured boy, said. "How are you so sure he has it sealed on his person?"

The man snorted. "You're here aren't you?" his eyes curved up evilly and Naruto's eyebrows twitched up for the briefest of moments when he saw the man's eyes quickly shift to a dimmer shade of blue, then back to normal.

"I might be here to save him so he doesn't get raped by you." Naruto stated bravely.

Instead of being offended, Maximillion chortled, his voice echoing in the empty backroom. He held his stomach with his right hand; the left still levelled at the younger wizard's heart, and cackled with glee. "I very well might have! But look at it this way," he settled down and wiped an amused tear from his right eye. "You're here now; I can do you both."

The Yakuza boss could feel bile rise up his throat and his eyes shrank into small, red dots. "Over my dead body, you ugly piece of _shit_."

The man savoured in the boy's disgust. Naruto's anger reduced fractionally as he saw it again; bright blue eyes dimmed to a watered down blue, then back again. This time flicking on and off about three times.

"I can do that too." He rubbed the side of his head and closed his eyes, grunting in discomfort as a sharp ringing entered his ears. Waving his wand at Naruto to show that he could still use it very well, he winced and shook his head. "Shhhhh…no, no….shhhhhut up, shut up, shut up…I can do this…"

Naruto raised a curious eyebrow as the man swayed on his feet. Then suddenly, Maximillion snapped back upright and his eyes were now dull blue.

"The coin." He said, his voice oddly deep and commanding. "Unseal the coin and give it to me."

That was when it hit Naruto. "The _Imperius curse_…" he whispered, remembering the signs his Kaguya had taught him to watch out for to indicate a person was under the body control curse; the eyes and the short-lived struggle for dominance, of which nearly always ended in the casters favour. The eyes reflected the casters eyes.

Maximillion was being controlled.

He was a pawn to a much bigger, more important piece.

This brought back the suspicion of the Order and the Death Eaters.

The fraud had to be under the curse for months now, cluing Naruto in the power of the caster to sustain it for that long.

"I said, unseal the COIN!" the tip of the man's wand crackled with orange light, ready to shoot a torture curse. Naruto finally decided it was time to move.

It all happened in slow motion.

The mafia boss reached behind him with his right hand behind him, clenching his teeth as the _Cruciatus curse _whizzed out of the man's wand to his chest. The boy grabbed the veela core wand from the storage in his back pocket and slashed at the curse, diverting it to his left and harmlessly fizzling on the ground. Maximillion prepared to launch another curse at the eleven year old boy but grunted as a weight settled on his back. A pair of legs wrapped around his middle and two arms went under his own and pulled back with astounding strength for the relatively short stature of the newcomer. His wand pointed at the ceiling, shooting it into the sky. There was a feral growl by his ear and he screamed as sharp teeth sank into his neck, making him drop his wand in shock and reach behind him to grab the person by its short, spikey hair, leaving his chest open for Naruto to plug three stunners and a full-body lock spell.

The first blasted him clear off his feet.

The second shattered his sternum.

The third shut down all control of his arms and legs.

The body lock finished him off, paralyzing him from head to toe.

The person that had been wrapped on his back skittered out of the way and allowed him to crash onto his back. He gnashed his teeth in pain as the thing sat down on his chest, glaring down at him with blood red, vulpine eyes.

Naruto launched towards the downed man, destroying his wand as he passed him, and he skidded to a stop as he saw the unexpected, but not unwelcome, person that had made it easier to incapacitate the fraudster.

A boy with a deep, healthy tan looked over his shoulder at him. He looked to be about the same age as Naruto, with golden orange hair, three thin whisker marks on his cheeks and a satisfied smirk on his blood smeared lips. He was wearing a simple short sleeved red shirt and black shorts, no shoes or socks to cover his feet.

The most distinguishing feature were the red fox-like orbs looking at him, they looked down in submission. Then there were the two triangular orange furred ears on the top of his head.

Naruto instinctively looked past the whiskered boy for his wand and his hand closed tighter around the warmly pulsing veela core wand.

"Who the hell are you…?" Naruto said in a low, uncertain voice, speaking to the fox boy sitting on the man's chest.

The boy opened his mouth and raised a finger to answer the fairly simply question but toppled off the wizard as Maximillion began to convulse.

White foam dribbled down the corner of his mouth and his blue eyes rolled up into his head. Naruto rushed up to him and tried to see what was wrong but ten seconds later it was too late.

Corpus was dead.

Naruto's eyes became grim as he looked down at the dead body. The orange haired boy wrung his hands nervously, sitting on his knees, looking like he had failed somehow. Naruto's pointer and middle finger turned the dead man's head to study the bite wound on his neck but frowned when he saw that the wound was only shallow, not deep enough to do any harm and careful not to have too much saliva. It wasn't the cause of death. The foam pouring out of his mouth brought the child to a conclusion; suicide pill or suicide curse.

Someone was trying to hide his tracks.

He tapped his wand on the lower jaw of the dead man and the frothy foam cleared off. He then opened the mouth and sighed tiredly when he saw that no teeth were missing; a preliminary scan of the body showed that no capsule inside his body either.

'_Long range suicide spell.'_ He idly wiped his hand off the man's black cloak and got to his feet. He shot the nervous boy beside him a look but saw that the fox boy didn't mean any harm. "I'll deal with you later, for now I want to get this kid home."

Harry, who had rolled onto his stomach and got his feet under him, tore up. "N-n-n-no…"

"Hm?" Naruto hummed, raising an eyebrow at the crying kid. Harry shuffled towards Naruto on his knees. He pressed his forehead into the ground in a deep bow. "I-I don't w-want to go back. Please! Take me with you!"

Naruto shared a knowing look with the fox. He exhaled and bent down, helping the boy back onto his feet. The thought of the boy suffering at home enough to not want to go back _and_ the bodily proof of abuse that shone through on his unhealthily lean body and his upsetting wounds, made Naruto sick to his stomach. The only problem was that with all the problems on his head; the mysterious puppet master that had tried to steal the coin through any means necessary, including using a forbidden curse and torturing a child, the silence of Nagato about the true status of his gang and of course, the fact that his mother very well might still be alive.

Oh, and the humanoid, sentient Kitsune core wand standing before him.

He shook his head regrettably and Harry's heart sank. "I'm sorry but I can't do that, not right now." The defeated, resigned look on the young Potter's lowered face cracked the mafia boss's conscience. Naruto exhaled again and added. "But…there is something I can help you with…"

As if knowing his intentions, the living Kitsune core slinked up behind the young boy and knocked him out with a clean chop at the back of his neck, catching him before he fell bonelessly onto the floor and placing him on his shoulder.

The next day, for the first time in his young life, Harry Potter woke up in a warm bed and was greeted with a large breakfast by his widely smiling aunt. Dudley squealed and stayed out of his way as he went down to make breakfast for the family, but Petunia insisted that it was fine, that he should go and get ready for both of them to go clothes shopping. Vernon's face was purple with rage but his jaw was clamped shut as he watched the shivering Potter leave the house with his wife to buy new, better clothes for him. He wisely quiet, the bandages on the top of his head reminded him of the threat he and the family had gotten early that morning.

"_Hurt the boy in any way and I will be back." his eyes were dark red with evil. Dead. There was a small, sweet smile on his lips and the two tall wizards looming behind him, glaring daggers at the family, punctuated each word with foreboding. "No matter where you run, no matter where you hide…I will find you…and do you know what I'll do to you?" he grabbed Vernon by the scruff of his neck and drew him closer, forcing the man to stare down into the shattered red orbs that spun with unforgiving hate and loathing for him. His voice distorted and became deeper and deeper, becoming nothing less than demonic and sending violent waves of death down the fat man's spine. "I'm gonna make you watch while I cut o__**ut your wife's eyes and force your son to swallow them**__." He wasn't even close to done. "__**Then I'm gonna shove a five foot long iron pipe up your sons ass and see what will happen when I add more and **_**more**_** pipes up his ass until he dies squealing like a pig.**__" The boy's eyes enlarged and Vernon whimpered pitifully, trying to shrivel away as the red orbs spiralled in their sockets like burning whirlpools, straight from the pits of hell. "__**Then I'm gonna get ten werewolves to have their merry way with your wife. You are going to hear her scream**__…__**beg**__…__**cry for mercy and you will not be able to do anything because it's all going to happen on your Mother. Fucking. BACK!**__" The boy ground his teeth and towered over the man, his fist tightening painfully around the scruff of the grown man's neck. The deepness of his voice created tremors that rattled only within the house, not outside, and the man began sobbing, snot dribbling out his nose like an infant. "__**Do you understand, Mr Dursley?**__" he let go of the man, not even caring to hear his reply, and ran a strong hand down the front of his flight jacket. He left silently but his presence remained._

The Dursley family were scared stiff.

Though it was all to make Harry live his life the way he was supposed to.

Happily.

…Until Hogwarts came knocking on his door.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Meanwhile with Naruto…

He placed the last finishing touches to the blood seal etched onto the back stone wall of his vault in Gringotts and sealed the coin in with his blood. The seal was a _Quadruple Security seal_ that required four simultaneous conditions before the contents could be released; the first was his blood, then a complicated gesture that could only be done with his finger print, an eye scan and a voice scan. All had to be done within a five second time frame; only five seconds between each condition before an alarm was set off and the seal lashed back defensively.

It was the most secure sealing method on the planet.

He looked around at his massive, carefully arranged vault. The treasures of all four houses he was affiliated with were neatly placed in a number of boxes and the money was separated into several piles. There were eight massive bookshelves that went high up into to the ceiling, filled to the brim with books, scrolls, tomes and texts. Shifty, his goblin account manager, had painstakingly arranged them by house and in alphabetical order.

The boy personally placed a _Flagrante curse_, _Object duplication charm_, _Full-body lock hex_ and an _Insanity Possession curse_ on all of the objects in his vault and even on the walls to prevent any unauthorized person from touching them and leaving unscathed. The _Flagrante curse_ was to make his things severely burn the thief, the second was to double the objects as the thief stumbled around in pain, the third was to lock the persons limbs together and set up an alarm while the last was to shroud the thief in madness until a trained wizard removed the curse.

There were a lot of dangerous items in his possession and he would prefer for them not to enter the wrong hands.

Dumbledore had returned the things he had taken from the Sarutobi residence, admitting that he had done so when he had heard news of the family's demise; he had flown all the way to Japan to look for anything of value. It felt strange hearing the man admit that he was digging in the rubble for items 'Hiruzen was too tight fisted to lend'.

He was really just glad he had crossed out one of his problems. The coin was now in a safe place.

"Thank you for all your work, Shifty." Naruto sincerely said as he shook the old goblins long fingers, wearing an appreciative smile.

The goblin bowed slightly. "You are very welcome, young master."

He left the wizarding bank and entered a café, he walked into a booth and drew the curtain to give him some privacy. He then placed his two wands on the table and silently staring at them. "Change. Now."

The Kitsune core trembled and rolled off the table onto a chair, a small spurt of black smoke erupted from its body and the boy from before waved it away, coughing into his fist as he did so. The veela core copied the other wands example and rolled off the table onto the seat opposite Naruto; white smoke burst out from its tip and covered it, a pale hand waved it away to reveal the person sitting in place of the wand. The girl had flowing white, waist length hair and had smooth, pale porcelain skin, small ruby red lips, a button nose and large, pale eyes that looked at her master with adoring eyes. Similar to the fox boy sitting by her side, she was in a short sleeved white shirt and white shorts but no shoes.

She also looked to be about Naruto's age.

The veela core wand leaned on the table with her elbow and smiled happily at Naruto, who had his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

She…she looked _exactly_ the same as his dead adopted mother.

A wave of tiredness hit the boy and he groaned, rubbing the sides of his head with his fingers and mumbling, feeling a dull throb indicating a headache was on its way. "Do I _ever_ get a break?"

The white haired girl giggled behind her hand and the orange haired boy cracked a grin.

Naruto ordered for a strong cup of coffee and the two humanoid wands told their master who they were.

All the way back in Hogwarts, a pair of blank eyes stared down at Kushina Uzumaki, beaten, bruised and just at deaths door. She was hanging by her wrists to a chain connected to the ceiling, clothed in only a tattered purple shirt. Her skin had purple and yellow patches from when he had been physical with her and she was panting for air as her dry airways forced out a bloody vomit to fall onto the feet. She had been standing on her toes, hanging by her wrists for so long she had lost track of time.

Days passed and with each session she became more and more convinced that the man only wanted to the power the coin possessed to rule the world. The blood seal she placed on Harry could only released when the blood of the sealer, using the sealers own hand, attached to the sealers body, and with the sealer being willing, was one of the only ways to unseal the coin.

She refused.

For six years she refused.

He was tempted to just shoot a killing curse into the stubborn woman for not simply unsealing the coin. His hands itched to do it, but he held back and only fired a torture curse.

"You should have just unsealed it for me Kushina." The man said venomously, shaking his head and spitting hatefully at her feet. Heavens knows he had tried to get her to cooperate with him, but now it was too late; the coin was with Naruto now and he was possibly the strongest wizard in history and with this new revelation that his Kitsune core wand was sentient and could shape shift, it pushed the chances of successfully capturing and coaxing Naruto away. His eyes became strong as the woman's pained whimpers echoed around his dungeon; Hogwarts had plenty of dungeons and rooms even some of the teachers didn't know about. She lost the strength to scream a long time ago. He almost felt sorry for her, then he remembered that her stubbornness had destroyed his chances of getting the coin and he fired another torture curse at her, ending it only after a minute.

She could still have some use.

"I can use you to barter for that damn coin, pitiful woman."

**Authors note**

**How was that?**

**Which teacher do you think it is and why does he want that freakin' coin so much?**

**And the revelation that Kaguya and Kurama are (somewhat) still alive?**

**Let me know in the reviews!**

**My next story update should be ****The Beast Came from The Pit**** and it's gonna be a real gut wrenching one. Give it a read if you're interested :)**

**Leave your thoughts in a review, if you please. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.**

**Foy.**


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